One Year!

Today Michael and I celebrate one year of marriage! I was about to walk down the aisle at this exact time one year ago today. We had a BEAUTIFUL wedding that I am really proud of. We did a great job of planning it. Our wedding was on a Sunday (hey it saved us a LOT of money!). We got married in a local Greek Orthodox Church then had our reception at a local swim and tennis club (kinda like a country club). I was very lucky to have most of my family and Michaels family join us that day to celebrate. I am not good with being the center of attention so I tried to stay out of the lime light (which is really hard as a bride). It is the one thing I struggled w/ and wish I would of just gotten over. I was shy and you could tell by some of my photos. But thats ok.

This year went by super fast, but also it feels like we have been married forever. It feels natural for us. I could not imagine our lives any other way. We have had some struggles this year and still learning to navigate our way, but are doing it together. I look forward to what life has in store for us. I just pray its not too hard :)

Here are some photos from our perfect day!

The Church

 My Stepdad walking me down the aisle

 Our first kiss as husband and wife. You kiss before walking out the door at an Orthodox ceremony

 My flowers were BEAUTIFUL! They were all roses - dark oranges and reds. Bridesmaids had a smaller version.

 The wedding party - girls in brown dresses, burgundy shoes, and guys in burnt oranges vests w/ black tuxes

 My something blue

 One of my favorite photos

 My fav girls

 Yup - he smashed it in my face

What I learned as a bride

There is a LOT you learn as a bride. No one tells you or shall I say warn you before you begin. I think other brides are sitting back laughing at you while you figure the nightmare out. Here is what I learned while being a bride:

1. You will have sympathy for the ladies on Brideszillas. You will begin to understand why they are freaking out. Plus a camera in your face the WEEK of your wedding.  Now some are downright awful, but some...well I get it ladies...its ok!

2. Vendors will expect you to know everything and act like you've done this before. That was the most frustrating part. I have NEVER planned a wedding before...I was not a bride in a past life. 

3. You MUST have a coordinator day of. There is WAY to many moving parts even in the simplest wedding to do it yourself. All the planning before hand...sure do it all yourself. But day of...hire someone! Or like me have a great boss who loves to do weddings as a hobby.

4. You will have a meltdown at some point. Something will push you over the edge because you are being pulled in a thousand directions.

5. Do EVERYTHING early. This is where my groom came in. I always do things last minute (who doesnt love working under pressure). He made me sit down and do stuff early and man am I glad he did!

6. Sometimes you just need to say Fuck It! You can't hand make everything and not everything will get done. Some things will be forgotten or need to be purchased last minute. Just hand over the credit card and say fuck it.

7. You can set a budget, but you will go over. We did, but not too bad.

8. Pay for it yourself if you can. No one can give their two cents (they will want to though) when you are paying for it. Plus its a good excuse to say no.

9. Watch the guest list. We did ours in 2 rounds. Round 1 - family. Both of our families and extended families live out of town so we did the invites of people you have to invite. 2nd round was local friends who would understand if you couldnt invite them bc of family.

10. You can't do everything yourself. Let people help. That was the hardest for me.


11. Don't go overboard. Its ONE day! At the beginning think of what you will not scrimp on (food, flowers?) and think of other things that are not that important to you (chair covers, center pieces, etc). Think of what you remember from other peoples weddings...you wont remember the little things.

12. Your groom is your partner! And after the wedding you still have to face him and your family. Treat them with respect, they are also stressing.

13. You love him, but you will freak out and get nervous the week or day of. It WILL hit you. Michaels was caught on tape! haha You will feel much better afterwards.

14. Get use to being the center of attention. UUH! hardest for me. I had 3 showers - again they are all there for YOU as a bride....no one cares about the groom at showers.

I enjoyed my wedding, but good lord I wont go through that again! And we didnt even have a big wedding. Remember as a bride to breath and relax!

Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties

The Friday before we got married we held our bachelor and bachelorette parties. Thanks to a WONDERFUL lady I work w/ (she gave us a whole bunch of gift cards to a fun Atlanta restaurant). We all got together for some drinks and yummy food then went our separate ways. Us girls went to an improve theater for a show. It was soo much fun and hysterical. That was it...nothing too crazy, just some good laughs and drinks. Here are some photos:

Now...the boys...thats a different story. You will see no photos of that night...im sure there are none. Here is the story and yes it will slightly resemble the movie The Hangover...

After dinner the boys went to a local bar to see a band and drink. Nothing crazy...(I am very comfortable w. us and wouldnt of cared if they went to a strip club - but they didnt). After lots of beers and shots the guys headed home around 3 am (I was staying at a local hotel and thankfully missed this)...after pulling over on the side of the highway to let a groomsmen puke...they make it to the same hotel I was staying to drop off a groomsmen. This is when groomsmen D decided he wanted to make a run for it...reasons still unknown. He was completely blastered. The bestman had to tackle him in the parking lot and force him into the car. When they all got back to our house groomsmen D decided to make a break for it...again! This time he tried to get into his car to drive home. Best man slams him against the car to stop him and groomsmen D decides to throw his keys into a neighbors yard...After chasing him around outside they finally get him into the house. Everyone goes to find a spot to change and pass out they realize groomsmen D is gone again. So out they go to try and track him down. Michael and his best man are sober so all is good there. They drive around the area w/ no luck of finding him so they go back to the house. About an hour later they hear a car alarm going off. Groomsmen D tried to sleep under one of the cars at the house and set off the alarm and took off again. He reappears around 6 am at our back porch scaring the crap out of my sister-in-law who was sleeping in the living room. He ended up getting poison ivy on his face (which appeared the day after the wedding thank god) and loosing his phone. Not to mention a HORRIBLE hang over that the best mans one-year-old daughter made worse by playing w/ loud toys first thing in the morning.

I didnt even believe this when I woke up and heard the stories. It is funny to laugh at now, but boy Michael was not laughing that night.

Boys.....

Wedding Part 2

I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos from wedding part 1. We had a WONDERFUL wedding. We belong to a Greek Orthodox church so our ceremony was very traditional in the Orthodox sense. Our wedding was on a Sunday so the ceremony was only 45 mins to an hour and not an hour and a 1/2 like they normally are. It was beautiful and I am really glad we did that.

Our wedding party was awesome! Most was from out of state so we were very lucky they agreed to travel and be part of our day. We had no drama with the wedding party..whew! Only some funny hiccups before hand, which I will get into in another post. Our wedding day was a drama free day :)

One of my big things was I wanted everyone to have fun at the reception and I think it was pretty fun! Our DJ was AMAZING!!! Everyone was up and dancing, including our grandmas!

I would recommend ALL of our vendors we used. If you are in the Atlanta area look these guys up (no one has asked me to do this, We just had a GREAT experience w/ all) :

Flowers: Perfect Petals
DJ: T & C Show
Photography/Videography: Chris Brock
Reception (they did all food, drink, cake, set up and break down!) : Olde Towne Athletic Club

Now more photos!

I AM MARRIED! Part 1

We got hitched! October 9, 2011 was a wonderful day! Here is a recap of the day and some photos! I have some stories that will make good blog posts for the days leading up to it. The day of was perfect though.

I got up around 8 am to start getting ready...thankfully my mom had reserved a hotel room for me because I needed some quiet and alone time. I went down to the hotel room where 2 bridesmaids were staying, that is where we all got ready. I had 5 bridesmaids, myself, my mom, the makeup artiest and hair stylist and the random visitor all in one room. I did as a co-worker said I found a compfy chair in the corner and SAT all day watching everything happen around me.  We were all very calm and just watched Keeping up with the Kardhasians and Kendra all morning.

2:00 pm - after all 5 bridesmaids were ready to go they left to ride the trolley w/ Michael and the guys. My mom stayed back with me when I finished getting ready (and of course we were running a little late). My stepdad and I drove to the church together - he rented a town car for us to drive in :) a last minute decision...ill get into that in another post. 

4:00 pm - wedding started! It was a long ceremony (about an hour) because we are Orthodox Christians and had a traditional wedding ceremony, but I wouldnt change it for the world. During the ceremony I had to face the groomsmen and they kept making me laugh and at one point I almost caught on fire! HAHA....one of the guys assisting the priest had to stand behind us holding something and stepped on my veil and jerked my head back, which made me laugh so hard! My maid of honor fixed my veil, but forgot she was holding a candle....I could of went up in flames! haha

6:00 pm - RECEPTION! It was beautiful and more perfect then we thought. We were soo glad how everything turned out. We really had fun and didnt worry about anything.

Now - some photos!

Wedding guests round 1

The first round of wedding guests arrive THIS WEEKEND! I am so excited! These awesome peeps -

Our matron of honor and best man, Jess and Mike and their beautiful daughter Kylee are coming in this weekend. We are meeting them in Nashville this Saturday (they are driving down from Pa). We are going to spend the weekend in Nashville then all drive back down to Atlanta. While they are here I have so much planned, none of it wedding related! haha We are going to a Braves game, an apple farm/pumpkin patch, the zoo, the aquarium, and a double date night. THEN the wedding!

I cant believe I get married in a little more then 2 weeks....weird...awesome...I am ready!