We're Moving!

To a new blog that it... bradlyandjordan.blogspot.com

Thanks to everyone that reads, I hope you'll enjoy a blog about the adventures of our first year of marriage!

All I wanted to do was EAT!

My one and only goal/requirement for our wedding day was to eat. I didn't care who had to wait to talk to me or how long I had to wait for my food, I really wanted to eat! I have heard so many bridal stories of the bride and groom not being able to eat all day long. Not me! Me and Brad are two foodies who fell in love, so we were determined to eat at our own wedding. After the ceremony, I quickly changed into a blue cocktail dress for three reasons: to cool off, to avoid the potential spilling on my wedding dress, and so I could eat in comfort. I take my eating very seriously, so I really wanted to be comfortable. Once I changed into my fun cocktail dress, me and Brad were introduced for the first time as "Mr. & Mrs. Brad Harris"! Oh, it was such a thrill. I never thought about the weight of those words, but as I have time to reflect upon them, they mean more to me than I could ever explain. I don't think I could ever explain it. But I am SO excited to be Mrs. Harris. The luncheon started and we feasted on a harvest salad with pecans, apples, feta, and just plain yummy deliciousness. Next was the main course, the buttermilk chicken was ok. Mine was overcooked, but I thought it was pretty good. The chicken was over garlic potatoes, which were yummy, and had a side of honey carrots. I LOVED the carrots! So good! And the rolls were really great too! And for dessert was a lace cookie cup with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge on top. Ok, these things were AMAZING!!! I mean, amazing! My brother in-law, Jared, described them as "heavenly". Anyone who was there would probably tell you the same thing, as I did not see any left over lace cookie cups on the tables. (I'm pretty sure parents topped off their kid's lace cookie cups as well)

After me and Brad had finished devouring the table, we walked around to talk to people to see how they were doing. I really enjoyed being able to talk to everyone that came to our ceremony. The feeling of love and support in the air was overwhelming. If I had thought about it too hard, I probably would have broken out into tears. This is again, one of those feelings that you can't really describe. But just know that we felt extremely loved by everyone there and we are so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family.

Once all the food was eaten, it was time to take pictures! That's every one's favorite, right? I changed back into my dress, touched up the make-up and rallied the troops to come and take some pictures. Rallying the troops was, uh, fun. I thought everyone liked to take pictures, but I guess I was wrong! But I totally understand, it was a little warm outside and everyone had just stuffed their face with food, so taking pictures was not exactly on every one's "need to do" list. But after some yelling and a slightly "bridezillaish" moment, we got some great shots. My mother was a trooper and held my flowers dress, and bustled the dress within seconds. She was literally my right hand throughout the day. It was wonderful. Thanks Mom!

By the time we were done with pictures, guests were starting to arrive for the reception. Man, time was flying by at lightening speed! I would like to say that I remember every detail of the night and everything I said, but I would be lying. It kind of went by in a blur. But the overall feeling of the reception was of love and support. A lot of people from my home stake that live in Utah now showed up, which was amazing! It was so wonderful to see old friends. My parents were in heaven seeing all of their friends that they haven't seen for a while.

We cut the cake about 45 minutes in the reception so everyone could get some cake. Brad and I had a standing agreement that we wouldn't shove cake into each other's faces because we didn't want to have sticky faces, and Brad told me that if I ran, he would throw cake at me. He would do it, so I didn't dare break the agreement. We cut the cake and fed it to each other. I put a little dab of frosting on Brad's nose, but don't worry, I cleaned it up. And the cake was SO GOOD! We had some fun-fetti and some lemon-poppy raspberry. I nearly died it was so good! The Old Meeting House also sent some of the chocolate fountain treats with us, and they were also very delicious! We didn't throw a bouquet or the guarder because there weren't hardly any single people there. I was a little disappointed, but not that much. Before I knew it, it was time to go.

I changed my clothes and me and Brad had a quiet moment to ourselves before we headed outside to unwrap our car. In all fairness, we got off really easy compared to some other people we know. The car was decorated all cute and we headed off to our hotel for the night! As we drove to the hotel, I honestly couldn't believe that we had just gotten married and just experienced everything we had been planning for the last 6 months. We could not have been happier with the day we had, the people we got to see and talk to, and the love and support from all those we love. Thank you to everyone for reading the blog and to those of you who came. It meant the world to us!

Here is a 'sneak peek' of some of our pictures!

(Oh, I almost forgot to tell you how my "DIY: Why the heck did we decide to do this project?" turned out. Um, really well. They looked great on the tables and most of our guests liked the chocolates. I heard that my aunts were scavenging tables to find left over ones, so I guess they were a hit!)

Warning: Incredibly long wedding day post to follow

Well folks, we did it! Can you believe it? I can hardly believe it myself. Everything went amazingly well. Brad and I feel so blessed. We could not have asked for a more perfect day. It was everything we could have wanted and SO much more. The week leading up to the wedding was surprisingly uneventful and very relaxing. That's right, I said it, it was relaxing! We weren't running around crazy. I think I even took a nap on one of the days. Because my mother is so wonderful, I didn't have to worry about one detail of the day. She worried about all of it for me. Thanks Mom!!! You are the best!

On Wednesday (the day before the wedding), we had a rehearsal dinner. My main reason for wanting a rehearsal dinner was so all of the families could get together and chat BEFORE they saw each other at the wedding. We had the rehearsal dinner at my Grandma's condo. It was a barbecue. Complete with burgers, hot dogs, and the best thing ever...beer brats! Oh, they were SOOOO good. I wanted to eat more than the one that I had, but I didn't seem like a piggy bride, so I just loaded up on desserts instead! I could go on and on about the food. Lets suffice it to say, it was amazing. Really. I kind of want some right now. Yum. Okay, back to the rehearsal dinner. The weather was actually really nice. It lightly sprinkled a few times, but it actually worked out well because people were not dying of heat stroke. There was also a pool there, so my cousins were completely entertained the entire time. We were so lucky that lots of people from both sides of our family and a few of our close friends came. The biggest surprise of the night for me was my Dad showed up earlier than I thought he was going to. My Mom kept telling me he was coming in at 10:30 that night...so I believed her. Who wouldn't believe their mother? So when he showed up, I cried. A lot. When I'm truly surprised, I cry. Ask Brad the story of when he proposed. I cried. Sobbed. It took a good few minutes to gain composure. Not my proudest moment. But I was SO HAPPY my Dad was there. The rehearsal dinner was complete. I think my Dad described it perfectly when he said, "This rehearsal dinner is just a slice of heaven." It was so true. I hope heaven is like a big barbecue with everyone I love the most in the world. We got to talk to everyone and let them know that we were so thrilled they came to see us get married, and we were even more excited for Thursday!

I think I got about 5 consecutive hours of sleep. Not bad. I woke up and read my book for a bit and then fell back asleep so I got about 6.5 hours of total sleep. Again, not bad. I was only getting married that afternoon. What did I have to worry about? So I got up and ate a waffle breakfast with my mom, dad, and grandma. It was great. I was totally relaxed. I didn't have a worry in the world. I knew that that day was going to be the most special day of my life. I was so excited. After breakfast, I sent my parents off to the rehearsal. We had to have our rehearsal for our ceremony that morning because the venue told us we had to. Well, I wanted to see Brad for the first time at the wedding...not at the rehearsal. So I just didn't go. I didn't need to know what order to go in. I was going last. Easy. So, I sent my parents and told them to fill me in on the details later. While they went to the rehearsal, I showered and went to go and get my hair done. Went back to my grandma's. Ate a lunch, and then started to put my make up on. At this point, the nerves started to kick in. And they kicked in hard! The butterflies were really flying at that point. I was also SO tired of talking about the wedding, I just wanted to be at the wedding experiencing it!

It wasn't long after I put my face on, that we left for the Old Meeting House (OMH). Now the cold sweats were going. I can't really remember the car ride all that much. I just wanted to be there. We finally got to the OMH, and I sent my dad up to make sure Brad was in the groom's room with the door closed. As much as I wanted to see him. Kiss him. Hug him. I wanted the surprise factor more. I walked around and saw all of the details. Said hi to the families. And then they put me in the bride's room. And once I was in there, I wasn't allowed to leave. I wish I were kidding, but no. I was quarantined in this beautifully decorated torture room. I wanted to be out and about and talking to our guests. But no, I was in the bride's room/torture room. Our photographer took lots of pictures and it was fun to get ready. My grandmothers, aunts, an uncle, cousins, and friends came into the room before to give me their well wishes. Everyone was so nice to tell me that I looked pretty. I loved that. As the time was getting closer, I was getting a bit more nervous and I asked my mother to go and find my dear friend Lorraine. She had just experienced what I was about to do 6 days before ago. I knew she would understand what was going through my head. When her and her husband Dan came in, it was a huge relief! She gave me some really great insight. I told her that I just wanted to see Brad. I had only texted him once throughout the day, and was dying to just see him. She said, "You know Jord, when you do see him, it will change your life." Boy, was she right! That simple statement really calmed my nerves and I was so excited for my life to change in just a few minutes.

The last thing to do before walking down the aisle was have my Dad come in to see me. He hadn't seen any of my bridals. He wanted to surprised. I knew that I would cry when he saw me, so I wanted to getting the crying out of the way. My Mom went and got my Dad, and he came in and just smiled. I started to cry. It was a lot of emotion coming up at that moment. This moment happened to be one of my favorite moments of the day because it was just me, my Mom, sister, and Dad. Our little family. Spains for a few last moments. It was so precious. I will never forget that moment and the looks on each one of their faces. So I cried only a few tears. But once I got those tears out of my system, I was good to go! And luckily for me, it was time to go.

My Dad walked me down the aisle to Canon in D being played on the piano. I didn't really hear the music being played. There were two steps I had to step down to start walking down the aisle. The first thought that went through my head was, "Where's Brad?" I found his eyes as soon as I could, and had a hard time taking my eyes off of him. He looked SOOO GOOD!!!! I mean, stunning. He really took my breath away. There are not enough words to describe how I felt in that exact moment, but I was so thrilled, excited, and happy. I was so happy that I didn't cry. It was one of the many miracles that day. But as I walked to him, I couldn't help but just feel so loved by everyone in the room. Once I got to him, I took his hands and didn't let go. I was so happy to see him. Our wonderful Bishop performed a beautiful ceremony that ending with the most simple ceremony of him marrying us. I think that if it were appropriate, I would have jumped up and down, and almost did! Happy. Happy is the best word to describe what I was feeling. When the bishop pronounced us husband and wife, we walked up the aisle, and then I gave my new husband the biggest hug and kiss I have ever given him! Oh, I was so excited!

To give your eyes a little bit of a rest, I'll blog about the luncheon and reception in later blog posts. Thanks to everyone that reads! This blog has been a lot of fun for me!

Grateful

As I sit here in our house on a super quiet Sunday, thinking about all that needs to be done before Thursday, and Thursday itself; the emotions, the food, the dress, the pictures, everything, the one underlying emotion that I feel is gratitude. Me and Brad are so incredibly grateful to our loving parents, especially our mothers, who have sacrificed so much of their own time and energy to help us plan our wedding. Our wedding would not be half as successful if they had not helped us with the planning. And to our fathers, who work so hard to provide for their families. We love you. We are so grateful to our loving grandparents. We are grateful for the ones who are traveling to be with us for the wedding and the one that just lives down the street. We also remember the loving grandparents we lost last year, and know that they are with us in spirit. We are so grateful to our siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins for their love and support. I have the world's most wonderful aunts and uncles and I love them so much! I especially feel so grateful to my family for welcoming Brad into our crazy family and making him feel like one of our own. We are so grateful to our wonderful friends who have loved us and supported us throughout our whole relationship. We would not be the same without you and we cannot wait to continue our friendship with you in the years to come. We are grateful for our wonderful bishop who will marry us. He has helped us in my more ways than we can count, and we number him among our closest friends.

But most of all, we are grateful that we have found each other and want to spend the rest of the eternities together. I am hoping Thursday will not be as emotional (crying emotional) as it is for me right now writing this blog post, but I know it is going to be a beautiful day with the celebration really centering on the joining of two lives. We cannot wait to start our life together!

We hope to see you all at the reception. It is going to be one fun party! Love you all!

Christmas in July

I am sorry that I have not posted recently. This monster, called "Wedding", has quickly taken over my life. I wish it was not the case, but at the same time, I would not have it any other way :) Where should I start...the gifts have started to arrive! Every day when we come home there is either a card, a box, or both waiting for us. We were opening the presents at first, because who can resist presents? But my tender, sweet, and loving mother told me and Brad to "Cease and desist" (actual words. And if you say it with a German-ish accent, you can achieve the full effect of this statement). She wants to watch us open presents the day after our wedding. So...we have stopped. Mainly because my mother has been nothing short of amazing through this whole wedding planning nonsense, that I will do whatever she asks, because without her, this wedding would not be nearly as beautiful as it's going to be. I'll update you on the gift list later, but what we have received so far is AMAZING!!! We are so grateful to our loving family and friends for their generosity towards us as we are about to start our life together.
In other news, the one story that I was most looking forward to telling you is not going to happen. Remember the creeper photographer? Ok, I was half-way dreading taking pictures with this guy, and half-way looking forward to it; just for the sake of the story. Unfortunately, my dress had quite a few complications and was not going to be ready in time, so we decided to cancel my bridals with the creeper and reschedule for some other time. Well, we never really got around to it (rescheduling with the creeper, that is) and decided to reschedule with our photographer, Ashley. I was able to take some bridals on Monday up in Logan with Ashley, my mom, and Brad's mom. It was an adventure, to say the least. I hiked up a mountain...in my dress! Can you believe it? I couldn't! Oh, it was crazy. All of the bugs thought I was a very large flower and were immediately attracted to me. The bees were trying to pollinate me, but I shooed them away. It was also in the middle of the day, so the sun was piping hot and we had to use a reflector...which made for some squinty-faced pictures. All in all, we got some really incredible pictures. I couldn't be more pleased and I am so excited to have Ashley take more pictures of us on our wedding day!
Speaking of wedding day...um, yes, it is in exactly one week from today!!!! I cannot believe that it is almost here! I am more excited than anything else. I am not worried about things coming together, and if I haven't thought of it already, then it obviously wasn't that important to me in the first place. I feel like the details will just work themselves out. I'm really focusing on enjoying the day and every moment of it. I want to be present and really absorb all of the wonderful moments I am going to have next Thursday. My mother knows exactly what I want and I know she'll make it happen. Honestly, just as long as I end up with a husband (named Brad Harris) at the end of the day, I will be one happy girl!

I finally have my dress!!!! After what seemed like endless fittings and temper tantrums (me, my mom and the seamstress), my dress is finally in my possession!!!! Last night, me and my mom were at the dress shop till about 9:30 getting things fitted, fixed, trying on and fixing some more things, and at the end of it all, we got to take my dress. These fittings have become such a thorn in my side, that I really dreaded them. I kind of forgot the real reason I was going to get the dress fitted in the first place. It's amazing how you can get so wrapped up in wedding details that you forget the big overall picture of things. Last night, the big overall picture hit me like a ton of bricks. It finally sunk in that this IS the dress that I will walk towards Brad in. And this is the dress that I will be married in. And this dress classifies me as "bride". And this is the dress I will show my daughters when they are old enough to appreciate it. I am so unbelievably grateful that so much time and effort went into getting this dress perfect for our wedding. And I'm even more excited to officially wear it in two weeks!

It's Crunch Time

Just to give a quick update, we are in crunch time mode. Brad and I are constantly talking about the wedding, I am constantly thinking about the wedding and I'm trying my hardest to not get too stressed because my hair falls out when I'm super stressed. (You wish you were me right now, don't you?)

Other than that, plans are coming together amazingly. I'm just hoping that on August 5th, a perfect store will come and all of the details will fall into place.

Gotta run! Hope I get to see you all soon :)

I put up some wedding announcements at work and the major concensus is...no one knows I have blonde hair. To qualify this statement, I work in an operating room. Imagine a smurf...now put a surgical mask on that smurf. And that is me...at work that is. (Ok, I don't wear white pants or a white hat. The point is that I am all blue! Blue scrubs, blue hat, all blue.) It has always been an interesting phenomenon that when you see someone you work with in their "normal clothes" and you don't recognize them. It's actually more the fact that they are not wearing a dorky looking hat and they look human again. Ok, back to the story. I put up three wedding invitations in various locations in the Operating Room and everyone has been coming up to me and saying they didn't recognize me and had NO idea that I have blonde hair. They have also been extremely nice and congratulating me and telling me how pretty I am, etc, etc. I know, it's a rough life, but someone has to do it :)

On the rough life note, I am having my first bridal shower tomorrow! YAY! So excited! Can't wait to see my family and friends and eat all of the yummy food :)

I'm ready!

I am ready to be married! Geesh, the buildup to this wedding has reached an excruciating level and I am ready to walk down that aisle towards the man I love.

Here are all of the things I am ready for:
*combine our lives
*do our laundry together
*combine kitchens (believe me, it's a lot of crap...he is a baker, you know!)
*have matching towels
*combine our beds (ok, we are actually getting a new queen mattress, but many people have suggested we just push our twin mattresses together)
*guaranteed dinner time together (almost guaranteed)
*have Brad be the last person I see when I go to sleep and the first person I see when I wake up
*take his last name (yes, I am actually ready and willing to file the copious amounts of paperwork in order to change my last name...only for you Brad!)
*start sentences with, "My husband..."
*not have to live with another roommate...except for Brad
*be an aunt to Tyson, Ellie, Fynlee, Max, and the one in Jenni's oven
*have Brad on my insurance plan
*get a tax break because of our marital status
*fully enjoy every day knowing there is a man that loves me, no matter what (I already live this reality :)

I am just ready to make this thing official so we can start OUR lives together.
I love you Brad! I can't wait to be your wife :)

Crap, I Mean Craft Projects

Seriously, it all comes down to the details. I find myself being bombarded with the tiniest details lately. You know what requires a lot of attention to detail? A DIY project! Why on earth did I decide to do a DIY project? I am NOT crafty. I have never been crafty. I will never be crafty. Why did I think that I could suddenly become crafty a month before my wedding? Stupid, stupid decision. These favors are going to be great, they really are, but I don't know why I thought I could do them. My thumb has a bruise on it! No joke. The scissors were applying so much pressure to my thumb, that I now have a fantastic bruise. Ok, you can stop laughing now. I am desperately trying to pull out my inner Martha and enjoy this process. I even watched half an episode of Bob Ross's painting show with Brad and became inspired by the "happy little trees and bushes", and decided that craft projects can actually be "happy". The bruise on my thumb indicates otherwise. There is nothing happy about a bruised thumb. And the fact that the bruise was caused by a pair of scissors doing a craft project! Seriously, stop laughing now.

On a happier note, we are exactly ONE MONTH away from the wedding! I can't believe we have been engaged for 5 months and together for 11 months. Time seriously flies. And the time is not going to slow down anytime soon. There is a lot to get done between now and August 5th, but I am so excited!

Can't wait to be Mrs. Jordan Harris

I should be doing...something?

Ok, we are about T-minus a month away from the BIG day, and I cannot seem to think of one thing I need to do. I had to get up early to go into work today (gotta love mandatory stuff on Saturdays, right?), and now I am wide awake and cannot think of one thing to do. The problem is, most things are done. Laundry, check. Dishes done, check. Floors swept, check. Wedding guest list up to date, check. Toenails painted, check. And nothing on TV, check. I can't think of a thing! Ok, the bathroom needs cleaning and I could clean the litter box, but this will only take me half an hour!

If you can think of something for me to do, suggestions are welcome!

And here is the wedding update: My fitting for my wedding dress was canceled on Wednesday and rescheduled for this Monday. Have I mentioned how much I love my dress? So excited to wear it! Brad's gorgeous (and completely sexy) suit will be ready for pickup on Tuesday! So excited for that as well. I know my future mother and sisters in-law don't like to hear me rant and rave about how sexy Brad is...but oh man, he is SO sexy in that suit. I digress, sorry. I am hoping to get our engagement pictures from our photographer today or Monday so we can pick the picture that will go on the invitation, so we can send it to the printers and get our invitations. We get to start sending out invites soon! YAY! And tonight, I am having a girls night with some of my best girlfriends and we are going to prep the favors for assembly a couple of days before the wedding. (If you don't remember this, me and Brad are making our own chocolate favors for our guests. I blogged about it a while ago if you want to see what we are doing. I can't remember the post, so good luck finding it :)

I think that is all I have for a wedding update...more to come later...hopefully...if I can figure out what I need to get done ;)

Oh...my...dress!

My dress is absolutely amazing. I mean, I hate to brag, but it's stunning. Absolutely stunning. I went to try on my dress on Saturday to have my first fitting. Me and my wonderful mother and besty Lorraine went to the bridal shop, Danielle's, where me and about 6 other brides were trying on dresses, and getting fitted. The bridal enthusiasm and tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I totally understand because picking your dress is uber important, and you want everything to be just right. I definitely felt the tension when I was wedding dress shopping. So, needless to say, I kind of re-lived all of that tension. It was refreshing to know that my dress was just in the back. As we went to the back of the store where the seamstress was, I saw my dress hanging in the back hallway. My heart melted. I said, "There it is!" I was so bloody excited, I just couldn't wait to put it on. They set us up in a room and I finally got to see the dress and be in the dress I ordered 12 long weeks ago. I have to say that the experience was very relieving. I felt at peace and very content with my decision about the dress. I felt that this dress was completely made for me and is exactly what I want. I just stood there and stared. I stared at myself, at the details of the dress, the fabric, the silhouette, everything. I probably looked extremely vain, but I just couldn't stop staring.

The dress looked better than I could have hoped for. 12 weeks ago, I tried on a white dress, but the dress I ordered is ivory...and it is spectacular. Seriously. Again, hate to brag, but holy cow, I looked good ;) The details were just perfect, the dress was just flawless...except it was a little big! WOOHOO!!!! I loved that the seamstress had to take the dress in, and not let it out! So, among my staring, the seamstress was pinning and tucking and fitting me for a jacket that I will wear over the dress. Oh, it was just fantastic. I am so excited for the finished product.

I am definitely going to knock Brad's socks off!

Brad was also in search of a suit that will knock my socks off this week! This was also quite the process. We went to a couple of stores and he tried on a few suits. Let me just say, my fiance looks fan-bloody-tastic in suits. I mean, WOW! I think I blushed a few times at his shear sexiness. Brad finally decided on a medium gray, pinstripe suit from Men's Wearhouse. Brad wanted his suit to stand out from the other men in the wedding party, and boy will he ever. There will be no doubt in my mind that everyone will know who the groom is on August 5th. I am so excited about his suit. I know he's going to make me cry on the wedding day, the only question remains, will I make him cry?

Stay tuned to find out!

Brad and I had such a FUN weekend!!! We went up to Logan. It's has only been a week since we have been up there. HAHA! The reason for our visit was to take some more engagements with our brilliant photographer Ashley. I have blogged about Ashley before, and what I said in that blog is so true, she is wonderful! We had such a fun time taking pictures with her! She is hilarious and heavy on the dirty jokes, which oddly enough, makes for fantastic pictures!

We went to a meadowy/forresty area near Hyrum. Don't ask me how we got there. I have no idea. Whenever we go up to Logan, I am nothing but lost. Brad usually does all of the driving when we're up there, so I never have to worry about direction. Anyway, I digress, the area was absolutely gorgeous, the weather, was not. You can't tell from the pictures but it was cloudy and rainy and freezing! My arms were seriously popsicles. But we were lucky enough that the rain let up just a bit when we started shooting. But we had a blast and the pictures turned out AMAZING! Granted, I have not seen all of them yet, but if this is what the "sneak peek" looks like, then I can't wait to see the finished product!

Thanks Ashley! You ROCK! Can't wait for you to capture our wedding day :)

Check out the rest of the pictures HERE!

Slimming...fast

What is it about a diet that makes you completely aware of every morsel of food around you? Seriously, yesterday at work, I can tell you what everyone had to eat. As a huge sandwich lover (yes, I will pay $9 for a delicious sandwich), everyone had a sandwich that I really wanted. Oh, they all looked so good. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I hate being hungry...I love food, way too much to be on a diet! A diet = death for a foodie.

I have decided to go on the "Slim Fast" diet because I need to slim...fast! My sweet grandmother gave me her unwanted Slim Fast shakes and I have been using them as two meal replacements during the day. Yesterday was my first full day on the Slim Fast plan, and needless to say, by the time I got home from work, I was hungry! The day wasn't too bad because I just snacked on fruits and veggies all day, but I was ready for some hearty, real food by the time I got home. Carrots can only take you so far, you know? Luckily, I have the world's most thoughtful fiance, and he made me a delicious and healthy dinner. Mojo pork with a black bean and corn salad. YUMMMM!!!!! I know you're jealous.

To be clear, my goal is to lose just a few pounds so I feel good about how I look on my wedding day. I am not looking to lose massive amounts of weight in only two months. That would be insane. But if I could lose just a few so I felt like I look better, it will make me feel better about the wedding day. The dress, my face, the pictures, the honeymoon (eek!), everything. It's really a win-win all around. I admit, this diet is a little bit crazy, but again, I need to slim...FAST! I can do it for two months. Anyone can do anything for two months...and it really hasn't been that bad. Granted, it's only day two, but I am optimistic.

Wish me luck in slimming....fast!

P.S. My dress ships out next week!!! WOOHOO!!! So I should have it in the next couple of weeks. So excited!

Gentlemen....start your engines!

Saturday officially marked the 2 month mark. 2 MONTHS!!!! Seriously, I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by. And since we hit the 2 month mark, we have been running our hind ends off! It's as if someone pushed the "busy" button for both of us and we barely have time to sit down and talk. The 'to-do' list just seems to be getting longer and longer, instead of shorter. We get one thing done and put four more things one. Here is what Monday's schedule entailed:

Brad- work from 0700-1200

Jordan- internship from 0800-1200

Jordan- run errands around town including, getting rid of Comcast service (WOOHOO!), meeting Brad at Staples to pick up some labels, going to ACE Hardware to have keys made for the apartment, and calling everyone in the phone book.

Brad and Jordan- lunch

Brad and Jordan- go grocery shopping because today is the only day we could do it

Brad and Jordan- Clean the stairwell and prep for paint

Brad- laundry

Jordan- tanning

Brad and Jordan- dinner

Brad and Jordan- sleep

The list looks a lot shorter when you write it out, but trust me, it was a lot to do. And the fun continues tomorrow!

I'll let the pictures do the talking

Thanks Alisha! You did a great job!

I think I want THAT one...

Oh the joys of weddingness. (Is that a word?)

Last weekend Brad and I decided that we wanted to do something fun and found ourselves at Target with a scanner gun, registering for gifts. Three hours later, we walked out of Target completely exhausted and nearly registered half the store for our gift registry! We walked up and down every single aisle (including the toy aisle) and looked at most of the stuff and asked, "Do you like it?", "Do we need it?", "Is this too much?", "How durable is this?", "Will this match the stuff that we already have?", and blah blah blah. I think we sat and stared at the place mats for our dining room table for about 10 minutes trying to decide what we liked...it was a bit ridiculous. Although, I feel like we registered for a good mix of practical gifts and "luxury" items. (I'm really hoping we get the Wii) (wink wink to all those reading this...no seriously.)

But the best part of the day was watching Brad and his scanner. Make no mistake, it was his scanner. I had absolutely nothing to do with it. And if he did by chance hand the thing off to me, I was only allowed to have it for approximately 10 minutes or 10 scans, whichever came first. I've never seen him so affectionate with a "toy". (Except his Legos.) (Sorry I outed you babe) If I had a nickel for every time I heard the phrase "FREEZE PUNK!", I would have about a dollar. He was hilarious with it. Scanning objects as if they had broken the law. He was telling me to "FREEZE!" at every corner and almost every object he scanned. It was as if his inner policeman had taken over, and everything was about to be shot. Like the spatulas, pans, rugs, and towels had all broken the law and they were about to be annihilated by Rambo. He was also trying to get me to give him an incentive to barrel roll out into the middle of the aisle and shout "FREEZE!". I gave him no such incentive. There were people watching us, and there were plenty of other couples there registering as well, and they were not acting as dorky as Brad was. I got embarrassed. Sorry Brad. Maybe when we go to Bed, Bath & Beyond, you can barrel roll into the aisle with your scanner gun and shout, "FREEZE!".

I know he will dispute the validity of this story, but you can trust my slightly embellished version ;)

I am so, uh, fashionable?

For a long while, my wedding dreaming had subsided. The last wedding dream I had turned out to be my wedding nightmare, and I blogged about it. I was content with that being my last wedding dream. I now fully believe that this wedding is going to happen. It's not a dream anymore, it's a reality :) I love the reality of it. But last night a pesky little wedding dream crept into my subconscious. I had a dream about the wedding budget. Numbers were flying everywhere and I had one of those old fashioned calculators that prints the receipt as you type in the calculations. The receipt tape was out of control and my hair was an absolute mess and I was completely stressed trying to crunch the numbers so the wedding would come in on budget. I think this could be a major theme to this blog...weddings are expensive! I mean, seriously expensive. So guess what I am going to be doing today, yep, crunching numbers. Although, I will be doing it on my fancy schmancy scientific graphing calculator. Try not be jealous of my day ;)

I have more updates....Brad and I went shopping last weekend. We went to that mecca of any cheap shopper, and went to Dress Barn, Ross, and Kohls. I found nothing. Nada. Ni. Not a thing. It was so frustrating. I absolutely hate shopping now. I have lots of, uh, curves. My curves do not match the current trends of stick straight, tight, and skinny jeans. I am not complaining about my curves. I love my curves, and so does Brad. But it is because of my curves that it is really difficult for me to shop. After a couple of hours of seriously frustrating shopping, Brad suggested we go to "my place". The one place on the planet that I find all of my fashion needs and more...Target. That's right, I said it, I am a proud Target shopper. Half of my wardrobe is from there, and I cannot believe I didn't think to go there first. It would have saved me a lot of aggravation. I found a cute little wine colored dress and a purple tank top with a grey cardigan to go over the top. Very cute, if I do say so myself. Brad also found a new dress shirt to wear in the pictures and he looks HOT in it. Just take my word for it.

My next blog post will be all about taking engagements with Brad's sister Alisha...things are coming along! YAY!

This week has been a fun wedding planning week! The most fun has been designing our wedding invitations. We went to a place called Beautiful Wedding Announcements. It's a family owned business with the best printing prices in town. I just wanted to go and see what they had to offer, but we ended up designing the whole thing! The process of designing a wedding invitation is a little messy though. The owner of the company just gave us stacks of invitations they have done, all with different features, shapes, colors, fonts, etc. She told us to just pick them apart and decide what we like. Immediately me and Brad hated everything that had a collage of pictures. We just wanted one nice picture of us. And I also hate things that are on an angle. I am a perpendicular kind of gal. Most of the pictures that were a collage on the invitations were all angled and made to look like they were just "thrown" onto the invitation. Not my style. We also hated anything with bright colors or anything that might suggest that we are twelve years old and getting married. For the record, although we may act like we are twelve most days, we are not. We like things that are classy and simple. We are not extravagant people and we don't need our invitation to be either. And finally, I did not want to spend a TON of money on these announcements. Most of them are going to end up in the recycling bin anyway, so why put a ton of money into it? (And for the majority of you that read this blog, you will be getting an invitation, so please recycle them. It would mean a lot to me if you did!)

So as me and Brad are sifting through the endless piles of announcements, we start to formulate the things that we want for our announcement. I want it to be in our color scheme, pale yellow and eggplant, one picture, centered with an eggplant border around it, our names in eggplant and a special font, and to have a "slight floral" design in the background. (I asked Brad how he would describe the design in the background of our announcement and he said "slight floral". Really. His words, not mine.) We also decided to put the invitations on matte paper and not the glossy stuff. We really liked the linen paper, but it would cost extra. No thank you. We also wanted to get some thank you post cards to send to people. They're going to be adorable. A picture of me and Brad in our wedding day outfits holding "Thank You" posters. When you see them, you'll love them too :) I left the invitation designing center (ok, it was really in the garage/basement of some one's house. But it was legit.) feeling like we had accomplished something for the wedding. I love it when that happens. A lot of wedding planning is just talk, you talk about what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, and blah blah blah. There is not a lot of actual "doing" until about a week before when everything has to come together in perfect synchrony. The point is, I like getting things done. So, would you like to see the announcement?...

I can't figure out how to upload it, so you'll just have to wait until you get one in the mail. Haha! Well, we're taking some engagements next week, so wish me luck trying to find an outfit that is flattering and fashionable, all at the same time!

Busy Bees

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry for my lack of recent posting. What can I say graduation and a generous shove back to reality is brutal. This is how our lives goes, go to work (early) and he gets home in the afternoon, (and I am usually there all day) we come home to our adorable and horribly undertaken care of apartment and put in a good 3-5 hours of hard labor, then we start running errands for the wedding or make plans to run errands for the wedding, come home and eat dinner and then pass out by nine o'clock. And then we do it all over again! Doesn't that sound like fun? I thought you would agree.

So yesterday when we were putting in our 3-5 hours of hard labor into our house (ripped up the backyard. It is desolate. Come over and see it if you want. I'm so sore this morning. I cannot even describe), my nice/a little off her rocker neighbor came over to see what kind of progress we were making. She was quite impressed with our demolition skills and thought we were doing a great job. She then looked at me and said, "Don't you know that you're not supposed to make him work this hard until AFTER you're married?" She thought it was hilarious and gave herself a good chuckle while I indulged her with a slight laugh. But seriously? Am I supposed to wait to work "this hard" with my fiance until after we're married? That makes absolutely no sense! I would think it's a great idea to do hard manual labor together before you get married to see how you work together. But that's just me. Maybe that's why she's divorced, she and her ex-husband did not do manual labor together before they got married. Oh snap!

On the wedding planning front and progress...Brad and I went on an excursion to Michael's last night. As you all know, my beautiful friend Lorraine is also planning her wedding. She was kind enough to send me a link to a website with great wedding ideas. I searched the website and I found a really cute DIY project to wrap our favors in. Here it is. If you look at the page, we'll be doing the second and fourth pictures. I think they are really cute and instead of a leaf on the fourth picture, we're making tags that say, "From the kitchen of Mr. & Mrs. Harris". I am VERY excited for this project! And I hope all of my girlfriends are as well, because I am going to need all hands on deck for this one.

We're off to invitation land this afternoon to see what our options are and how much it is going to cost us...ha!

Making a list, checkin it twice

School is now officially out for both me and Brad, which means wedding planning is now in full swing. To be honest, I really have no clue what I need to do and what needs to get done. It's one of those things that is so overwhelming that you have no idea where to go, so I enlisted the help of theknot.com. The Knot has put together a list of all of the things that you should be doing to be planning the wedding of your dreams. This list is HUGE! I mean, pages and pages of "to-dos". I went through the list, and actually checked off quite a bit of it! YAY! So, I must be farther along than I had thought.

Our next thing on the to-do list is to take some engagements. We need to figure out a time that works for both of us and have Brad's sister Alisha come down. Alisha, call Brad and we'll work it out :) (gotta love my blog...the message board!)

But what's in the immediate future you ask? GRADUATION! That's right, I commence tomorrow night! My dad, grandparents, in-laws, niece, nephew, and fiance will all be there to watch me walk across the stage in all of my commencement glory. YIPEE!!!

Notice the countdown clock...

WE'RE IN DOUBLE DIGITS!!!! Seriously, I am so excited. When I started this blog we were at 150+ days, now we're to 99. We still have a long ways to go, but double digits is way better than triple digits. It's more like a golf score, the lower the better :) Although, last night I suggested to Brad that we just elope. I think it would be ultra convenient for everybody. I mean, really, it's a time saver. But upon further discussion about it (probably a good 30 seconds) we decided that our mother's would shove bamboo shoots up our finger nails if we did, so we're not eloping. And I really want to wear my dress. Oh, my dress...I cannot wait!

In other fantastic news from the Spain household (Timaree please don't kill me), but my sister and her boyfriend Jeromy are engaged! I am very excited for the two of them. They have been together for about a year and a half and I think Jeromy is a great guy. They are very cute (to the point of nausea) together. It's so weird, because for the longest time neither me or my sister had boyfriend or even dated that much. Times have indeed changed. I hope my parents can handle having two engaged daughters. Poor things. I don't know when Timaree and Jeromy are tying the knot, but all I know is that it better not be in August! ;)

I feel as if a 2010 wedding is now the cool/hip thing to do. The way Ray Ban sunglasses and leg warmers have come back into style, getting married in 2010 is a hip thing to do. Seriously, a lot of my close girlfriends and now my sister are doing it. I think everyone should either get married or renew their vows in 2010. All of the cool kids are doing it!

Can't win them all...

Our winning streak has come to an end. I called up Studio 1 Photography to see if they would be willing to transfer the prize we won to engagements or bridals and the answer was, no. Ugh. I was so hoping they would transfer the prize to something we could actually use, but oh well, I guess you can't win them all.

On brighter news, school is almost done! YAY! I am finishing my semester this week. I literally have a pile of work to get done by Friday, but it's do-able. I am very excited to be mostly finishing my college career this week. I have to do an internship this summer and do an organic chemistry lab. Seriously, organic chemistry never leaves me. I hate it. Oh well, I won't ever have to think about organic chemistry ever again after the summer. But things are really starting to happen for me and Brad. My roommate is moving out on Friday (hallelujah!), which means we can start cleaning and painting and packing and getting ready to move downstairs. We also purchased plants and pots for our first little garden. We have a tomato plant, red bell pepper, cucumber, rosemary, lemon thyme, chives, basil, and parsley. I am very excited!

We're at the start of a really great summer!

Seriously?

Um, me and Brad won another contest. I know, right? We won a $700 wedding day photography package from Studio 1 Photography. I honestly couldn't believe it when I listened to the message. We have won two photography packages and a 35mm camera! So, since we have already won another photography package, this is my little plan...I am going to ask Studio 1 Photography if they will take my bridals and use the other photography package for some engagements. (I'm not really excited about the other photography place. Their pictures are super old fashioned and resemble Glamour Shots a little too much, so we probably won't use those pictures for anything.) Hopefully they'll be willing to do that because we already have our wedding day photographer. (Yay for Ashley Mae Photography. She is amazing.)

Wow, I have never been this lucky in my whole life. So again, to all potential brides and grooms out there, go to the extremely awkward bridal shows and enter EVERY drawing you possibly can! Seriously, if there is a little box with a small slit in it, put your name and number in that box! You never know what can happen :)

Anyway, on the wedding planning front...Brad and I are slowly starting to make lists of the things we need to get done. We haven't really been planning because we're waiting for school to be done. (Cursed finals) We went through his chocolate recipe book and picked out recipes we might want to do for our homemade chocolate favors. I'm really excited to make those. It should be lots of fun and messy and hopefully our guests appreciate it. We're also looking at wedding announcements, tuxes, bride's maids dresses...and I know I'm forgetting about four dozen other little details that need to get done, but I cannot think of them right now.

But we're approaching the less than three month mark and the less than 100 days! Double digits baby! WOOHOO!

(P.S. The picture has absolutely no significance, but I Googled Brad, and this is what I got! HAHAHAHAHA!)

This stuff only happens in the movies

This is my best girl friend Lorraine. We met our freshman year at the University of Utah and lived together two different times for a total of two years. Next to Brad, she knows me the absolute best. We have seen each other through thick and thin; term papers, chemistry tests, bad hair days, and of course, boy drama. Believe me, we have been through the gauntlet when it comes to boys not treating us the way we should have been treated. And through it all, we have remained close friends. A couple of months after I started dating Brad, Lorraine started dating Dan. We both managed to find men that love us and appreciate us for who we are and what we have to offer. This was almost too good to be true! We were both in love and loving life. When I told Lorraine that Brad proposed, there was not one person who was more excited than Lorraine. Brad asked me to go into the other room because we were squealing so much. And this weekend, Lorraine called me to tell me Dan proposed to her. I screamed, cried, and almost jumped through the phone to hug her. I cannot believe that we are engaged at the same time! Crazy.

Two best friends, soul sisters, engaged at the same time and get to plan their weddings together! Seriously, you can't make this stuff. I am so grateful that I get to go through this process with my best friend. Dress shopping, favors, invitations, music lists, registering, the whole nine yards. It's such poetic justice, we were so mistreated and taken for granted; and now we both have our "prince charming".

Is It August Yet?

My impatience is setting in. Oh, man, I wish it were August. August 5th to be exact. Last week I had a MAJOR craving/urge/will, whatever to want to call it, to be in my dress. Seriously, I want my dress to be here so bad. It's probably a good thing that it isn't here because I am not above lounging around my house in my dress. I love that episode of "Friends" when Rachel, Phoebe, and Monica are all lounging around in wedding dresses drinking beers. I would change out the real beer for an apple beer, but still, so funny! Phoebe says such a poetic line when she says, "In my normal clothes, I look down and know this is not going to be the happiest day of my life." So true.

I feel like Brad and I are on the cusp of so many things, and it's difficult to wait. I'm graduating in a couple of weeks, we're moving me to the down stairs apartment and we start renovations on the house in exchange for reduced rent, I'm starting my internship at the Salt Lake Valley Health Department doing Tobacco Prevention, and we still have to plan a wedding. I'm just ready to get it all started. Oh well, I guess I can't wish my way to August.

Back to Organic Chemistry homework.

In It to Win It

Advice of the day to all currently planning a wedding and future brides: First, go to those slightly awkward bridal shows. I know they are overwhelming and you feel like you're telling the world that you're getting married (at one of the shows they made me wear a name tag that said "future bride", trust me, it'll be ok), but they're really not that bad. Just go. And while you are there, enter every possible drawing you can. I have deemed myself one of the unluckiest people in the world. I have never won anything in my life...except at these bridal shows! I won a bridal photography session from Inkley's portrait studios and then Brad and I won another drawing this week! Some guy called from, oh, I forget the name, but we won...drum roll please...a 35mm camera and a bunch of film! Try to contain yourself, I know it's intense. Ok, it's a little lame, but it's free, and I am not above free.

Now I'm just waiting for the phone call telling us we one a free one week cruise to Mexico. Keep your fingers crossed.

So I am probably one of the most laid back brides I know. Since Brad proposed and we secured our location and date, I have been nothing but laid back. I honestly do not care what things look like, as long as they are beautiful. This speaks to my complete lack of creativity. I really wish there were a "Martha Stewart" bone in my body, but there just isn't. I've tried. You may ask my former roommate and one of my best friends, Lorraine, how good I am at decorating. Yeah...it's not pretty. I lack creativity to create a vision of the wedding. But thankfully, I have surrounded myself with incredibly creative people that help me create a vision. Case and point, this weekend Brad and I went up to Logan to visit his family. It was Brad's birthday weekend and also General Conference. It was a great visit. While we were up there, I asked my future mother in-law if we could go and look at flowers. Brad's oldest sister, Jenni, her father in-law is a florist. (Did you follow that?) Talk about a hook up! We went over to the store and me and Brad looked through magazines picking out different flowers that we liked that fit into our color scheme. It was a lot of fun, but like most things in wedding planning, it was overwhelming. My creative senses were completely overloaded and I didn't know what to do! All I knew was what colors I wanted my bouquet and Brad's boutonniere to be (a mixture of light yellow and dark purple flowers), and what colors I wanted everyone else's stuff to be (pale yellows). I also knew what shapes I wanted the bouquets to be in. Spherical. Nothing dangling or cascading down my bouquet. Simple. And elegant. Beyond these loose set of guidelines, I had no idea what I wanted. We looked for a few minutes at the magazines and then my future sister in-law, Alisha, came up to me and said that she told the florist to do whatever they wanted within her guidelines for her wedding, and the flowers turned out prettier than she could of ever dreamed. SOLD! And that's what I did. I told them to do whatever they feel would fit my style and to just do it. So...I have no clue what my flowers are going to look like! HAHA!

I told you, I'm a laid back bride.

Wedding Nightmares

I must admit that I dream quite often about the wedding. Some might say that means I am obsessed, but I don't care. Although, last night I had a wedding nightmare. I was at The Old Meeting House, I was in my dress, and Brad was there. Everything was perfect, except, about 25 people that I didn't want at the wedding showed up. Like the people that you don't even like to see at the grocery store, you avoid them like the plague, and the last place you want to see them is at your wedding. They were "crashing" the wedding. Not a fan of wedding crashers. Needless to say, I freaked! How on earth would we get all of those people out of The Old Meeting House without hurting their feelings and especially not inviting them to dinner! As a general rule to anyone planning a wedding or will be planning a wedding, the food is the MOST expensive thing you will spend your money on. Seriously, it's ridiculous. So, having uninvited guests showing up for the food would clearly be a catastrophe! Okay, back to the dream...I was in the bride's room freaking out about these uninvited and unwanted guests at our wedding, and the people from The Old Meeting House decided that we needed to create a diversion and get all of the invited and wanted guests into the reception side of The Old Meeting House so they could start their meal, while getting the uninvited and unwanted guests off the premises. What was the diversion you ask? Alcohol. It worked like a charm. It was as if the ice cream man came to our wedding. We got rid of the unwanted guests and our guests got to eat the delicious and expensive food. It all turned out great.

Hopefully, this does not happen. First of all, I will not be paying for alcohol at my wedding and I will not be worried about hurting people's feelings I don't want at our wedding.

Wedding crashers be warned.

Not what I was thinking...

This week was Brad's birthday! YAY! He turned 23 on Tuesday, March 30th. I had all of these fun and exciting things planned for Brad. I was going to make him a delicious dinner on Tuesday and then we were going to go out to a fancy dinner at a fancy restaurant on Wednesday. I was very excited to have planned all of this and hopefully surprise Brad for his birthday.

Well, this is what I got...dinner on Tuesday night was a disaster. Seriously. An epic disaster. Nothing was cooking properly, the icing for the cake was um, interesting, to say the least, the fish was still frozen after being out of the freezer all day. Nothing was going right. It was about 9:15 when I threw in the towel and we ordered Chinese. After eating about two bites of my delicious Chinese food, I felt extremely nauseated. Like to the point of almost tossing my cookies. It was terrible. Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon, I did lose my cookies, and the fancy dinner at the fancy restaurant was out of the question. Ugh, this is not how I pictured Brad's birthday going. This was his first birthday that we have spent together and I had to go and get sick. Thanks unpredictable stomach, for nothing!

Brad, I'm sorry your birthday did not go as planned. I will make it up to you, I promise. I love you and cannot wait to marry you!

On a positive note, I know have something to improve on for next year.

The Honeymoon...it's going to happen ;)

Where are we going to do it? This is the question on our minds. Where are we going on our honeymoon? Because we want to do it some place that is fun. And we want to do it somewhere we've never done it before. And we want to do it somewhere it is affordable. Other criteria include a large bed, beautiful room, fluffy bath robes and slippers, jacuzzi bath tub, and room service 24 hours a day. Isn't that what a honeymoon is all about...rest and relaxation?

Get your mind out of the gutter!

We have actually already booked our honeymoon. My parents gave me a week to use on one of their time shares for Christmas (awesome present. I cried. A lot.), and we could pick where ever we wanted to go! It was so nice of my parents to give us that. Seriously, basically free vacation. Brad and I went through the resort book really closely and finally decided to head to the Northwest coast. And thanks to my mother's superior booking abilities, we booked in Seattle, Washington! WOOHOO!!! I am very excited to head to Seattle to sight see, take a ferry to Canada, and EAT! It's a food town. How could this not be the perfect vacation for two self-described foodies. I have been on the website for "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" a lot to try and find places in Seattle. If you know of any great eateries in Seattle, let me know! I'm looking forward to going to Pike Place Market, Starbucks, the Space Needle, eating fish and chips at Iver's (thanks for the tip Grandma), and hanging out by the pier. Can you really ask for more on a honeymoon?

Get your mind out of the gutter!

It was a good day

Yesterday may have been one of the more exciting and happy days I have had in a while. (Except for the day Brad proposed. Nothing can beat that excitement.)

On Saturday, I went dress shopping with my family, my mom, grandma, future mom in-law, two future sisters in-law, and future niece. It was really fun and a bit overwhelming. Finding a dress is a lot of hard work. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I went to a total of three bridal stores. I know this may seem like a small number, but as mentioned before, I get very overwhelmed really easily. Feel free to ask Brad about this. I was stressing about our wedding before we were even engaged. It's a problem. I know. But I tried on a lot of dresses. We went to Danielle's Bridal, David's Bridal, and Gateway Bridal and Prom. I would recommend Danielle's and Gateway Bridal and Prom to anyone. Their service is fantastic and their dresses are the most beautiful. David's Bridal was described by my future mother in-law as "the grocery store of wedding dresses", and it's true. There are so many dresses in that store and WAY too many brides looking for their dress. Now, I am usually not one to judge, but there were some girls there trying on some UGLY dresses. And some of those ugly dresses managed to slip into my pile of dresses I tried on. Seriously, one dress made me look like I had a baby bump I was trying to hide. Hideous. Absolutely hideous. I guess it's the process you have to go through to figure out what dress you want. After trying on all of the dresses and having a million pictures taken of me in those dresses, I had all day Sunday to think about it. To be honest, the hardest decision was choosing what "look" I am going for. But once I decided on the look and my elimination criteria, it was a little easier to narrow down my dress options. So yesterday we went back to Danielle's Bridal and I tried on the dress I had in mind plus some other ones. The other ones didn't compare. I feel absolutely amazing in the dress that I chose. I feel really beautiful, elegant, sexy, skinny, and gorgeous in my dress. It makes me feel like I'm floating. Take my word for it, it's beautiful. My mom and one of my best friends Lorraine were there to see me pick out my dress. It was awesome. I can't believe I have found the dress that I am going to be married in! AHHH!!!! So exciting! The vision of our wedding is finally coming together for me and I cannot wait for Brad to see me in it!

Meet the Parent

Yesterday was a big day for me and Brad...our parents met. Well, to be more exact, his parents met my mother. My mom has graciously given up hours of her study time (she's back in school) in order to come and help me pick out my wedding dress (See previous blog). Thanks Mom for not studying for two whole days to help me out! She's a nerd. Now I know where I get it from. Unfortunately, my father had to stay back in Colorado. Boo. I miss you Dad. I hope the foot of snow and the 60 degree weather doesn't keep you in the house. Gotta love Colorado weather. Sorry, I digress, back to the story...so yesterday morning I fetched my mother from the airport and we were going to have lunch with Brad and his parents. It's always a little nerve racking having your parents meet. I know my mother is great and I know Brad's parents are wonderful, you just hope that they like each other. I mean, lets face it, we're each becoming apart of the other person's family. Brad will be the first "son" in my family. My poor father has had to put up with really dramatic and high maintenance women his entire life. He's gotten pretty good at tuning us out, and I don't blame him, so Brad is a welcomed addition to my family, especially for my dad. He now has more testosterone in the family to help balance things out. I will be the first and only daughter in-law on Brad's side of the family. Luckily, Brad's parents have plenty of experience with girls, they have three of them. I am super excited to be apart of their family and cannot wait to get to know them better. Again, I digress...sorry. So Brad's parents came over to my apartment (our future apartment), saw the place and met my mother. I wish it was more dramatic, like the skies cleared and a rainbow came bursting through the clouds as the birds sang outside the window. Unfortunately, that did not happen. (Although, another side note, I really wish life were like a musical and lovely things happened like that all the time. Better yet, I wish life were like the television show, Glee. More on this later.) Anyway, they met, we went to lunch, it was lovely. I am so excited that they have met each other, and they like each other! I'm really excited for my dad to meet them in May for graduation. That will be awesome.

Well, I'm T-minus one hour until we're on our way to find a wedding dress! Keep your fingers crossed!

In preparation for dress shopping

My mother is coming on Friday, yay!, and we are going to go dress shopping! We will also be joined by my grandmother, my future mother in-law, and two of my future sisters in-law, maybe my future niece, and some of my closest girlfriends in the world. Ahhh! I'm mostly excited and slightly nervous. Besides my gorgeous engagement ring(pictured below), there is not any other tangible item that says, "Hey, I'm getting married", except now I'm going to buy the dress I am going to be married in. Talk about pressure.

The dress is so iconic and so symbolic to any woman. Most women have thought about what they want their wedding dress to look like since they were little girls. I, on the other hand, have not. Because Brad reads this blog on occasion, I cannot go into full detail about what my ideas for the dress are, but lets just say, they are vague. I don't know have a clue what I want to look like when I walk into the Old Meeting House. Although, now that I think about it, I want two things to happen...to take Brad's breath away and to make him cry! Not a hurtful cry, but a "oh my goodness, that is my wife walking down the aisle and I just can't contain my emotion anymore". Sorry babe, but I am determined to make you shed a tear at my shear beauty!

Now, because my mother is coming on Friday and we start dress shopping on Saturday, you'd think that I would be living in the gym trying to get rid of a few pounds before I go try on wedding dresses....WRONG! I am so flipping hungry! Seriously, I can't stop. I want to. I need to. But I can't. I think I'm stress eating a little. I really wish I was one of those kind of people that when they get super stressed, are too stressed to eat...yeah, only in my dreams. I am a stress eater. I even took a survey in my stress management class that told me I was a MAJOR stress eater and that's how I deal with my stress. Oh, well, I can lose 15 pounds before Friday, right? Haha! Oohh, more jelly beans!

Wish me luck!

Pick a color, any color

Who knew that planning a wedding was completely immersed in the smallest details? I didn't. I thought it was about the bride, the dress, the groom, and the food (yes, in that order)(just kidding Brad, I love you!). Maybe it is, but with all of those things comes 1,000 details you have to sort out. As I started to comb through these details in my mind, I realized that most of them hinged on one thing...the color! The color dictates what the bridesmaids will wear, what the flowers will look like, table linens, tuxedos, invitations, the cake, centerpieces, the favors...the list goes on and on. How on earth do you pick a color? Not really a color, but the color. I would like to think that I am not a bridezilla with evil intentions. I want everyone in my wedding party to feel great about themselves and look good. What's the fun of getting all dressed up if you have to put on a hideous dress afterwards? No fun at all. The other tricky thing about picking a color is that it usually represents the bride and her personality. If it didn't, then there wouldn't be such a thing as pepto- bismol pink as a color for a wedding. Ugh, completely hideous. Anyway, back to the thrilling color story...I know you're intrigued. I wanted to choose a color that looked great on everyone and was also a color that I loved. I came up with...drum roll please...eggplant/plum and pale yellow with accents of gray. BAM! I am super excited about this. Just in case you are wondering what to wear at my wedding, here are a few examples...

This one is from David's Bridal

Dillards

Ashley to the rescue!

Next to having a husband on August 5th and my dress (lets face it, it is all about the dress), photography is one of the most important things to me on my wedding checklist. I have to admit, I was displaying bridezilla-ish tendencies when it came to getting a location and photographer. Okay fine, I was freaking out. All of the good places and all of the good photographers are booking up NOW for wedding season. I NEEDED to reserve my photographer, and fast! I went to a thousand websites and cruised through thousands of pictures, and to be honest, they all start to look the same after a while. I was getting desperate, and I think Brad was seriously thinking about locking me in a closet when he suggested his friend Ashley McKnight. Oh, it was as if the clouds opened up and a dove descended from the clouds...ok, not that dramatic, but you get the point. I looked at her blog and website almost every day. I love her photos. They are fresh, colorful, young, and candid! I love candids. And the best part...we could afford her! WOOHOO!!! So we scheduled an appointment up in Logan to meet with her this past weekend. It went great and we hired her! YAY for an awesome photographer who is sweet, talented, and definitely NOT a treky!
Things are coming together. Up next on the 'to do list'- the dress. (dum, dum, duuummm!)

Check out her website at: http://www.ashleymaephoto.com

Nothings free

So, this is how I know that Brad loves me. We live in Utah, and weddings are a big business here. Lets face it, the Mormon culture definitely contributes to the amount of weddings that take place every year. And with that, every year, at the beginning of the year, there are TONS of wedding shows here in Utah. Seriously, they are like every weekend. It's a good place to start looking for venues, DJs, photographers, bakers, bridal stores, tuxedo shops, decorators, jewelers, everything and anything wedding. And because I have no clue how to plan a wedding or even where to start, I decided to drag poor Brad to a couple of these bridal shows. See, he loves me. What other man would willingly go to a bridal show with his fiance where he basically ate samples and held all of stacks of paper that were given to me? Again, he loves me. A major component of these bridal shows is entering drawings. Lots and lots of drawings. Anyone who knows me, knows I am always on the lookout for a bargain. Why pay for something full price when I can wait 5 weeks and get it for 50% off? So I entered every drawing I possibly could. Even if it was something I didn't want, I entered. I wanted to win...something, anything. It worked! I WON!!! I won a studio session for my bridals at Inkley's Portrait Studio. Awesome, right? That's what I thought. Well, it is awesome, except the photographer is, well, um, a creeper. To be more exact he's a "treky". You know, those guys who go to Star Trek conventions once a year? Yeah, that's the photographer that will be taking my bridals. I'm a little scared.

Brad went with me for the "consultation" with this photographer, and it was interesting, to say the least. I felt like I was on a used car lot and the salesman was trying to sell me everything but the kitchen sink. This guy was literally throwing everything at us, a photo book for free, extra pictures, more time at the wedding, his first born child...everything he could possibly think of for us to book with him. Well, there were two problems, first I didn't like their style. It was very old fashioned and just not what I was looking for and second, I would probably end up killing him by the end of the day. I think Brad put it best as we left he leaned over to me and said, "Yeah, that guy is definitely not invited to our wedding."

I guess nothings free.

Location, Location, Location

It's all about the location, right? It's hard to find a good location though. Does it have decent parking? Is it easy to find? Is it beautiful? What accommodations do they provide? And of course, what do they charge? Finding a location is, well, hard. Brad and I went to a total of four locations. The first was Le Jardin. This is an indoor garden center with lots of tables throughout the garden. I have parents and grandparents with allergies, and everything was really spread out, it's really pretty, but just didn't fit what we had in mind for our wedding. So, it was onto our next location. We went to The Woods on Ninth. It is a beautiful house that has been renovated into a reception center. It's pretty trendy. Unfortunately, Brad and I are not that trendy. And the price was, uh, out of our price range. Onto our next place, Eldredge Manor. Admittedly, I fell in love with the place the second I saw it. Beautiful architecture, amazing accommodations, beautiful gardens, a great location. It had it all. I wanted our wedding to be there, but there was one problem, the price. Darn those beautiful wedding venues that know they are beautiful and charge you an arm, a leg, and your soul. Oh well, we finally went to our last and final destination, The Old Meeting House. The Old Meeting House has everything we could have wanted, beautiful architecture, it's easy to find, great accommodations that include all our centerpieces and a decorated buffet table, our cake, a pianist with our ceremony, and again, it's beautiful! So YAY! We have a location and a date. August 5, 2010 at The Old Meeting House, we will become Mr. and Mrs. Bradly Harris. SO EXCITED!!!!

Let me introduce us!

I have never been a fan of blogging before. I know some pretty incredible bloggers (shout out to: Lorraine, Amy, Kirstin, Liz, Madison, Alisha), and I feel quite inferior in my writing and blogging skills. But, I decided I needed an outlet to describe/document my journey in planning my wedding. I honestly thought that I would be a lot older when some poor guy decided that I was the only one for him, or his last option, and got down on his knee to ask if I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with him. Gratefully, this is FAR from the case! I have met the most wonderful man in the world, Brad, and he willingly got down on his knee and asked if I would marry him. I am so incredibly excited to marry him on August 5th...but before then, there seems to be a lot of wedding shenanigans that we have to get done. I must make one confession before I get started...I have never really seriously thought about my wedding. I have no idea what I want my dress to look like, flowers to be, colors, music, favors, food, etc, etc. I know what you're probably thinking, you are a freak of nature, and you would be correct in your assessment. But that is what makes planning this wedding so much fun, I have no idea what I want! It's a bit overwhelming and pretty hilarious, which is why I am going to blog my little heart out!

Before I get too caught up in divulging all of my wedding details, let me introduce us...see the picture? Yep, that's us. (Aren't we cute?)

Basic info on Brad:

• Business management student at the University of Utah
• Loves to cook
• But loves to eat more
• Currently, his favorite show on hulu.com is Lost...I do not understand this
• Has an amazing smile
• And he loves me

Basic info on Jordan:

• Health Promotion and Education student at the University of Utah (graduating in May, woot woot!)
• Love to eat...maybe a little too much
• Currently, my favorite shows on hulu.com is Modern Family and The Marriage Ref...hilarious. You should check them out!
• And loves Brad...a lot!