ONE WEEK!!!!

Oh my. It is just happening so fast. I am excited and stressed all at the same time. I din't get anything accomplished yesterday so here's Friday's To-Do list.

1. Still need to find paper for programs
2. Call my make-up artist to check times
3. Unpack all my stuff out of my car
4. Pack for the weekend trip to Kansas City!!
5. Cut more squares
6. Fix dinner
7. Laundry

I know that most of those are not wedding related but they still have to get done and at this point, if it isn't on a list, it's not getting done!

Have a great weekend!!

Wednesday's To-Do List

1. Pick us wedding dress from the seamstress (CHECK)
2. Check on tux rentals (CHECK)
3. Find and buy paper for programs
4. Find 2 more black tablecloths
5. Order Thank You cards (CHECK)
6. Get short-term health insurance (CHECK)
7. Pack up my stuff!

Hopefully I can find the paper and the tablecloths on my dinner break tonight. Since I have to work late today I doubt that I will get much packing done but it's possible!

9 days!

Can you believe that we are finally in the single digits? The time has flown by! I am trying to finish up last-minute projects and and accomplish all 4627849 things on my to-do list. I am beyond ready for the actual wedding.

I have been given some advice over the past few weeks for the day of the wedding. I'd like to hear more. If you have any advice on how to remain calm, stay in the moment, and enjoy the best day of our lives please post it in the comments section!

Planning ahead

While I'm doing a lot of planning for the big day I want you to do some planning too.

Be thinking in advance about what you want to write for our "guest book". We want more than a signature from our guests. We want wishes or advice, maybe even a short story. You will have an area of 4" square to write in so it can't be too long. If every member of your family wants to write a separate one, that's fine too. We plan to have this in a very visible space so that we can feel your love surrounding us all the time.

If you already know what our plan is, don't spoil it. We want to hear and see peoples reactions for ourselves!!

One month to go!!

I can't believe that we only have a month left to go!! I know that we are both so excited for the next few weeks and we hope that everyone else is too. We have a lot to do in the next 30 days so we won't have much time to worry about anything. This weekend we are going to try to move all of my stuff except clothes into our new place. Next week is vacation Bible school at church and I'm supposed to be helping with that. The next weekend we have a wedding to attend. The week after that I will be in St Louis for 5 days at a conference for my job. Then I have one week left of work and a girls weekend in Kansas City with my family. Then it's Wedding Week!!

I'm also still looking for a job. I had an interview yesterday and it went really well so we are praying that I get an offer soon.

If you have not returned your RSVP please do so as soon as possible. We would like to know how many people are coming so that we don't run out of cake and ice cream!! I would hate for people to not have anything to eat because we didn't hear from them. The RSVPs are pre-stamped so all you have to do is write your name and how many people are coming and put it in the mailbox. If you can't make it please still fill it out and just put a zero in the blank! Thanks!!!!

Time flies when you're having fun!

In 6 weeks we will be married and leaving for Mexico! We are so excited and definitely ready have the next 41 days over with. In the state of Missouri your marriage license is good for 30 days. I would like to get it as soon as possible so that I know it's done but I'm afraid that if I do Bryan will convince me to just get married at the courthouse. He's tried several times already but I haven't given in yet. Because of this, we will be waiting until the day before the wedding to get our marriage license, just to insure that you all still have a wedding to attend!

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!!

Engagement Pictures!

Here are a few of our engagement pictures. We have a lot more than this but I wanted to post a few for everyone to see.

Wedding Party #3

My third, and final, wedding attendant is my baby brother Jeremy. We are 5 years apart and we have pretty much gotten along our entire lives. There were times when we fought and the fights were brutal but there were far less of them than with my sister. They ganged up on me a lot when we were growing up but it taught me to be strong and hold my own.

I remember the night that Jeremy was born. My sister and I were staying with my grandparents for the night and we were cuddled up in bed with my grandma watching TV when the phone rang around 9:00. My grandpa came in the room and told us that we had a little brother and I said, "Send him back, I want another sister!". I'm not sure why I felt so strongly since at the time I'm pretty sure that I didn't like the sister that I did have. Either way, my parents kept him and I'm glad they did.

Jeremy and I have don't have nearly as many funny stories as Stephanie and I do but we had a blast growing up. I love him to pieces and I miss him terribly when he's away at school. Bryan and I are actually going down to Searcy this weekend to visit him and his wife as well as some of my other friends. This is a picture of Jeremy and I at his wedding back in January, sorry about the blurriness!


(Jeremy will be standing on Bryan's side during the wedding ceremony but it made more sense for me to post about him than Bryan since he is my little bro!)

Wedding Party #2

Erin (Cole) Woosley is my bridesmaid. Erin and I have been friends for more than 15 years and it is due to her inspired matchmaking skills that Bryan and I are together and planning to live happily ever after. Erin and I met at summer church camp many years ago and we became fast friends. I honestly don't remember exactly how we met but I know that we've been friends ever since. We grew up about 30 minutes apart so we had to make time to get together and see each other. We wrote letters back and forth and then eventually switch to email and then instant messaging. We would always meet up at church events and for almost 3 years we went to see a movie once a month. Of course we were too young to drive so our parents had to go along with all of this and drive us places all the time. Interestingly, our dads went to high school together and got along well so it was easy to convince them most of the time.

As we got older and were able to drive ourselves places it got easier. For a couple years we sang in a choir that her dad directed which was taped and re-aired for a Sunday morning church program on TV. We also played softball together for several summers once we were in high school. When I graduated high school and left for college we drifted apart. I came back for weddings and graduations but we were no longer as close as we had been. At some point a couple years back we started emailing again and now we are as close as we ever were. Apart from my sister, Erin is the friend that I've had the longest and I know that we will be friends forever. She has been with me from my first crush to my Prince Charming and I am so grateful for her love and support. I love seeing her every weekend now and being able to spend time with her and her wonderful family.

Fun Fact - Erin and I have the same birthday! I am a year older but we share the day. We had one joint party a long time ago. The only thing that I remember is eating at El Chico's and having to wear a sombrero as they sang Happy Birthday to us. Maybe she remembers more about it and will post a comment to share!

Before Bryan and I started dating we were both at a point in our lives where we felt lonely and unsure about the future. I have told Erin this several times but she saved both our lives by giving us one life to live together. We are forever indebted to her for our happiness and we have been told to name our first-born after her for her efforts. I think that is a small price to pay for the happiness and love that we have gained by taking her advice.

Erin, we love you and we owe you!!


This is Erin and I with her beautiful daughter Lindsey.

P.S. Bryan and Erin have their own history so I'm going to encourage him to write another post about her from his perspective!

New Registry

I have added a link on the right to our Wal-Mart registry. We had only planned on registering at Bed Bath & Beyond but there were just some things that they didn't have available. You will see a lot of the same things on both registries but that way you have more options. Have a great day!

Wedding Party #1

Our Matron of Honor is my sister Stephanie Hicks. Steph and I are only 17 months apart so we grew up fighting all the time but now she is one of my best friends in the world. We've had our ups and downs, like all siblings, but in the end we both know that we are sisters forever and that is something that is a lot stronger and lasting than any silly argument. I have a ton of funny stories that I could tell about us growing up but I wouldn't even know where to start.

One of the most re-told stories of our childhood has to be one of the funniest too. I know that at the time it was quite upsetting to our mom but now even she laughs about it. One night, we were approximately 3 and 4 years old, our parents were watching TV in the living room and Steph and I were in the back room playing by ourselves. We were in my mom's sewing room and there was a swiveling desk chair that evidently reminded us of the chairs in beauty shops. We decided to play beauty shop and for awhile we pretended to cut each others hair using our fingers as scissors. At some point we decided that wasn't enough fun so we broke out the real deal. We worked hard for quite awhile and then once we were finished and proud of our work we ran into the living room to show our parents what we had done. I don't really remember our dad's reaction but I'm sure that he laughed. My mom cried, and cried, and cried, and cried some more. We didn't really understand why she was so upset because we thought we had done a fantastic job. Needless to say we were taken to an actual beauty shop the next morning to try and salvage what was left of our hair. Some of my favorite pictures of us growing up are post-haircut.

This picture was pre-haircut by several months but it's my favorite picture of us from our entire lives. When we were growing up our parents were photographers so there are a lot to chose from. The progression of this photo shoot is the best because you see us not really paying attention and then goofing off and having fun and then after we got in trouble for goofing off there are pictures of us crying. It's the best!

Introducing .....

Over the next several days we will be posting individual entries about our fantastic wedding party. Who they are, how we know them, and why they are special to us. Stay tuned!

The voting isn't over for the drinks yet but I'll go ahead and call it a landslide victory for punch and sweet tea. We will be serving both so don't worry, you will have choices!

As of right now I do not have any other polls to post. Thanks so much for your input and for playing along.

Have a great weekend!

Punch!

People love the polls. Back by popular demand we have one more aspect that we want your opinion on. Bryan and I neither one like punch but we want to know what you think. If you choose the option "other" PLEASE leave a comment on this post to explain.

Also, I'm going to beg that people who leave comments include your name so that we know who you are.

Have a great weekend!

Cake Flavors

The people have spoken! Vanilla and red-velvet will be the flavors for the wedding cake and Bryan will have a coconut groom's cake. I hope that everyone will be happy with those flavors!

Bed Bath & Beyond

We registered on Saturday. It was an overwhelming experience and a LONG day. I think that we are both happy about the items that we chose. I let Bryan use the scanner so that he would have some amount of fun and needless to say, he scanned a few items without my knowledge. I think that you will be able to tell which ones were his picks. He also de-programmed the scanner at one point so we had to get a new one but overall the day was a success. You will probably notice when you look at the list that there are some obvious things that have been left off (kitchen utensils, small kitchen appliances, etc) and that is because we have most of those items already. There is a link on the right side of the page directly to our registry, or you can click here!

Thank you in advance for everything. A lot of people have already asked us about gifts and registering so I just wanted to get the information out there. Please do not feel like you have to buy us anything!

Choices

For the unity candle there are 3 options. Pick your favorite and leave it in a comment at the bottom of the post. These are just ideas, not exact replicas.

The first option is a vase engraved with our names and wedding date. It would be filled with water and use a floating candle. This could be used as a vase after the wedding so it has practical use as well as being personalized.

The second option is the standard unity candle but personalized with our monogram (AIB), names, and wedding date. The holder and tapers come with the candle in a set.

The last option is not a candle at all but a new thing called a "sand ceremony". The sand comes in 3 colors: white to signify the spiritual aspect of the relationship, and 2 colors of your choice one to represent each person. The sand is layered in the large vase with the spiritual aspect going in first, then a small layer for each person, and lastly all of the remaining colors of sand as a mixture to represent the blending of two families, two individuals, and God.

Leave your opinions!!

Poll results

You guys voted overwhelmingly that we should include a unity candle in our ceremony. Now we just have to find one that suits us. There will be pictures to come where you can leave comments to let us know your favorite!

Just a side note on the new poll about cake flavors .... you can choose more than one flavor! So far everyone that has voted has only chosen one flavor. We know that the cake is the reason most people come to weddings so we want you to be happy.

Thanks for your opinions!

Our Wedding Party

Alicia's Attendants
Stephanie Hicks - Sister of the bride
Erin Woosley - *Matchmaker* and Best Friend
Jeremy Young - Brother of the bride

Bryan's Attendants
Jeffery Inmon - Brother of the groom
Jonathan Woosley - Friend of the groom
Shelby Ragsdale - Friend of the groom

Officiant
Jack Cole

UPDATE!!!

The wedding time has changed to 7:30 instead of 6:30.

The Rest of the Story

well let's see. it all started four score and about 4 weeks ago with the most incredibly awkward first date anyone has ever been on. i was not at all nervous until i pulled into the parking lot of the bowling alley where we agreed to meet. it was not until then that reality hit me and i realized that i was meeting who would soon become the woman of my dreams. it seemed like the date lasted forever, and i was certain that she could not wait for it to be over so she could go home. before the night had ended, i asked if we could go out again, and to my surprise she said yes. it was like she was giving me a second chance to redeem myself. at that very moment i knew that she was different; special. i have been falling deeper and deeper into this crazy little thing called love. and now you know the rest of the story. well, maybe not the entire rest of the story, but the rest as of so far.