Engagement Party!

Hello everyone!  My medical school friends in Chapel Hill were nice enough to throw a casual engagement party for Aaron and I!!!  So sweet!!

Here are some pics from the event.

How cute is this, a matching couple!  

Claudia got these awesome outfits for her and Shane while she was in Africa.

The girls at the party!  I wasn't able to pull the guys away from the grill for a group shot of them.  On the far right is my sister Allison!  If you're wondering about the outfits, some people, including myself, have swimsuits on underneath. :-) 

Aaron and I cutting the oreo cookie cake Joseph made for us.

Practicing for the wedding! :-)

We had so much fun and I am so grateful and thankful!  Well, I'm off to a wedding in Asheville this holiday weekend with Aaron and we're so excited!!!  We love Asheville and we love watching our friends in love get married!!!

Parties and Pleats

Hello everyone!  The past week was pretty awesome.  Last Saturday, my Chapel Hill friends threw Aaron and I an engagement party!  It was awesome and we are so lucky.  More pics coming soon, until then, I'll leave you with one of our cake. :-)

Brunch with girlfriends earlier that Saturday morning  :-)

Our engagement photos came back!

See more here

Lastly, I went to another store and tried on the Alfred Sung dress in a smaller size.  The sample was still peau d'soie instead of dupioni, but it's a better fit (6 instead of 10).  I think it's super cute and it's going to be the one. :-)  I hope to pair the navy dresses with some cute gold peep-toes!  I'll check out some shoes by Nina.

Well, that all for today folks!  Tomorrow is my last day on the geriatric psychiatry floor and next week I'll start working in family medicine in Wilmington!  Exciting!  I also ordered some invitation samples (even though I have not decided on save the dates haha)-I'll post reviews soon!

The Bridesmaid Dress Search

I think I'm the lamest bride ever.  All my bridesmaids are out-of-state working, in college, or in medical school so the majority of the time I'm searching for bridesmaids dresses solo.  It's nothing like Say Yes to The Dress: Bridesmaids....I suppose I could develop a multiple personality disorder though!

Here's what I was looking for in a bridesmaid dress
-strapless with a sweetheart neckline-not a must, but I like the style
-a fun skirt, meaning some sort of poof rather than straight down.  I think weddings are about being girly :-)
-a price less than $200, hopefully closer to $150.  I don't think weddings should be about bankrupting your friends.

I always figured my bridesmaids would wear the same style, but it's really up to them. Everyone in different dresses always looks cute and modern.  However, if they were the same dress we could play with necklaces...

Bridesmaids in different statement necklaces....

Bridesmaids in timeless, pearl necklaces 

What do you guys think???  What do you prefer?

Now onto dresses...

Possibly the top contender.  Imagine this dress it if wasn't 3x too big on me, if i wasn't taking a picture with a cell phone and if the bottom was pressed.  That's what happens when you go shopping solo.  I think it'd be pretty cute, it comes in the silk dupioni  (I'm wearing a different, less structured fabric in the pic) and it's priced around $150.  A couple pics down I'm wearing another Alfred Sung dress with the same skirt in the dupioni, so it may help you get a better idea of what this dress would like if we went with it.  The model is wearing the dress in dupioni too.  There's a pic of the dress here on a dress form, for some reason the matching solid belt (sold with the dress) is not featured however.  I'm wearing it in the pic above and so is the model, it just breaks up ruching in a nice way.

Another cute dress, but satin-y.

Alfred Sung D500 in dupioni (same bottom as D536)

This dress has the same bottom as the sweetheart dress in the first picture.  The difference is, here the dress is pressed and shown in dupioni, so it's more structured than the peau de soie I had to try the first dress in.  It's also a size 6 with a clip in the back instead of a size 10.  This dress with sleeves is cute, but I don't know if I want to see this dress on 6 people standing side by side. Weird?  

Lula Kate

This dress is by Lula Kate, a super cute designer based in Charleston.  You can mix and match your bottoms, so I could get the top of the dress I'm wearing with the poofier bottom of the dress I'm holding.  Lula Kate's dresses cost around $230, so I don't feel comfortable asking my girls to pay that much.  However I'll throw the option out there in case my bridesmaids are ballin'. :-)

A Lula Kate wedding.

I'm trying to get all of bridesmaids to look at this post, so if you're on here please comment below what you think!  Sorry you have to use your imagination for some dresses, stores don't carry samples in all the fabrics and most are the sizes are huge.  If we can't get a final consensus, I'm open to just settling on a designer and letting girls pick their own the dresses.  Just beware, not every dress looks as cute on as it does on the model online!  That's why this dress didn't work.  I went through a lot of dresses to find these :-)  Oh, and all the dresses have pockets!!

Wedding Updates

Aaron and I have been on the DJ hunt all week!!!  We're meeting the last one in a few hours and hoping that we can make a confidant decision later tonight.  Too much watching of "Four Weddings" has got it stuck in my head that a DJ can make or break your wedding.  However, seriously, that show is the stupidest show ever and I dislike watching people be critical and nitpicky of each other's weddings.  Most comments they make are so ridiculous-"that dress was simple and it wasn't my style" or "I wish she did more with the centerpieces."  Hello, it's not your wedding! :-)

Moving on, here are some other things I've been working on...

I saw these ballet flats at Nordstrom the other day and they are the perfect bridal flats.  I love the rose gold color!  I'm using ShopStyle to hunt for the best price so I can order a pair for the wedding day!

I'm also looking for hair accessories!  I've decided small, multiple hair pins like the photo on top are best so I can add to or tone down as I see fit.  The pearl hair pins are from BHLDN, they're $400 which is totally ridiculous.  I hope to have a some gold accents incorporated in my pins, similar to the headband from Twigs & Honey in the picture below.  If only the pins and the headband could mate and have a baby. :-)

Our engagement photos are back!!!  Looking forward to sharing more with you soon and picking a Save the Date!  I think we'll go with magnets. :-)

Finally, I think I'm done with the bridesmaid dress hunt.  I'm going to make a post this week showing all the top contenders so the girls can see and voice their opinions...but I definitely already have a favorite. :-)  No worries, I'm pretty sure (hopeful) everyone will love it.

Okay, off to study until this DJ meeting!!!

What I've Been Up To

Hi guys!  I apologize for the delay in posting.  I've been pretty busy with vacation, then starting school again.  I'm working on the geriatric psychiatry floor and I love it!  I look forward to coming into work everyday and get to work with geriatric with a variety of problems such as anoxic brain injury, dementia, depression and bipolar disorder.  I also round on the perinatal floor and have been working with pregnant mothers struggling with psychiatric problems.  Since many of my patients are elderly or pregnant, I deal with many medical problems as well.  So, so fun.  Also, I got my Step 2 scores back today and was pleasantly surprised!  Whew, so happy I can continue on my quest to match and graduate smoothly!!!

Here are some pictures of what I've been up to outside of school :-)

Aaron's mother and niece came to visit :-) 

Here is the card Aaron's mother is reading to Grace :-) rumor is she's excited!

Blaire walking down the aisle at Latoya's wedding

Latoya & Geathan!  Latoya looked STUNNING. She walked down the aisle to "A Thousand Years", definitely an emotionally charged song

At Water Country USA with Aaron :)

Aaron learning how to wakeboard!  I didn't try :-/

At Beer, Bourbon & BBQ with Aviva last weekend!