Our Engagement Photos

Our engagement photos are in and I am over the moon!

Ben and I went through a long process of looking at ALL of the shots that we took with our photographer (credit to David Flores Productions) and finally settled on a reasonable number that we liked... there were seriously SO many to choose from!

So here are a few of them for you to enjoy!

We got to take pictures in the very theater where Ben popped the question (click here for the story, incase ya missed it!)! We took a few in the house...

And a few onstage...

I couldn't resist throwing a few dance-y poses into the mix...

And then we roamed the streets of downtown Nashville, and ended up climbing up on the pedestrian bridge...

I am oh-so happy with how they turned out! Ben was such a gentlemen to indulge me in such an extensive shoot, but I am ever-grateful for the memories!

Four Years Together!

Wow, what an immense honor it is to tall y'all that my fiance, Ben, and I have been huggin', smoochin', and sayin' "I love you" for over four years now!

Our actual anniversary passed about a week-and-a-half ago over Mothers' Day weekend. We were spending some quality time with our respective mothers and didn't have much of a chance to celebrate until this past weekend. That happened to be the day that I went to my first bridal appointment, by the way! Who would've thought of that four years ago? (I would say, "not me," but I had a good feeling about this guy...)

Life has been so hectic lately, I'm so glad we finally had a few hours to sit down together and have a nice meal. We went to a local restaurant, Rolf & Daughters and were able to sit outside under some cafe-style lights on a warm Sunday night. We feasted on some sourdough bread with seaweed butter (de-LISH, y'all!), steak tartare, a few veggie platters, the BEST non-fried chicken I've ever tasted, and fresh-made mafalde pasta. What a delectable spread it was!

I am so grateful to be ENGAGED to this sweet guy, and I love our life together! Cheers to many more laughs, smooches, and years together!

Dress Shopping Appointment #1 (of many)

Y'all. Getting to try on wedding dresses for the first time was A BLAST. I was definitely looking forward to dress shopping, but was so amazed by how affected I was by the experience!

First off, my Mom came into town for Mothers' Day weekend and we decided to do some wedding related things together: lots of discussing and planning, a stop at a local florist, and of course my bridal appointment.

From the moment we walked up to the boutique, I knew, based on the dresses displayed in the window that I would definitely find a few options that would fit my taste. We perused the selection and my preferences became very clear very quickly: soft lace details, a streamlined aesthetic (no ballgowns for me!), and classic, clean lines.

When it came to trying on the dresses, I was surprised to find that I ended up liking a lot of the dresses! I really thought I'd be the type of bride that would say "no," "no," "no," to every dress that wasn't THE one, but now I have the possibly more daunting (but also possibly more fun) task of narrowing things down from a wider selection than I expected!

I ended up trying on several dresses and narrowed down my favorites to two! At one point during the fitting the woman helping me went all out and tossed an extra skirt on the dress and a veil on my head! Wow I was so amazed by how much this REALLY made me feel... I don't know... shiny! That's definitely not the right way to put it, but I can say I wasn't expecting to react so strongly to the experience of trying something on!

Don't worry, this isn't going to be THE dress, so this picture isn't a big reveal or anything! Love the little lace details and the shiny trim to this veil!

It was a great start to the process of finding my dress and I can't wait to coordinate my future bridal fittings with all those who love and support me!

Upcoming: My Bridal Appointment (the first of several)

Photo by Laura Fenwick (2014)

I'm so excited to announce that I'll be going to my first wedding dress appointment next weekend! What a dream, I can't believe the time is finally here!

I've decided, however, that I don't want to do the whole shebang in one go. I'm planning three phases of shopping:

1 - An informal private appointment with my mom.

2 - An informal, much less private fitting with any of my dance buddies who want to come along!

3 - A somewhat-more-formal (but it's me, so still pretty informal) fitting with my bridesmaids, my mom, and my future mother-in-law!

And a possible (and honestly, VERY likely) fourth phase of me going through options for hours on my own...

I'M SO EXCITED. A few months ago I thought I had a very clear idea of what I was looking for in a dress, but these days (as I'm actually having to narrow it down to THE one) I'm not as sure anymore! I'll just have to wait and see what I'm drawn to in person!