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Invitations etiquette? 2 months out. Me? 1 month out. That’s how I roll. I make my own rules and I do what I want!
Either that or I’m just a lazy, procrastinating, bad bad bride. I’ll let you pick. 
So yeah, because I somehow managed to break my camera, Mr. Lab’s camera, and don’t have the cable connector to Mama Lab’s camera I’ve been borrowing, this invitation post will be a series. I’ll start with what I have now because I can no longer wait to share my “labor of love” (NOW I get why all the other invite DIYers call it that!). I should really call them my “labor of stifling many curse words”.
After my initial dilemma regarding invitation design, a very gracious reader reached out and offered to help me create my vision. Nada (Aka nada122, a fellow Georgia gal and sports reporter!) worked with (read: tolerated) my perfectionism so well that I thought she might have been my long lost clone from an alternate universe. Together, we came up with this digital beauty that I would print on my own.
Front:
The coloring is “off” because of Vista Print’s template Nada had to use. The printed invitations are blush pink, not purple. You’ll see the true colors of the invites in the next post!
When I first wrote about our wedding day music, I mentioned that I planned to dance with my mom to “Brown Eyed Girl” since I won’t have a father daughter dance. Well, that was before my ride to Savannah yesterday to tie up some last minute loose ends.
I was just minding my own business as I made the very boring 4 hour ride from my house to our wedding host city when I ran across a song that literally brought me to tears one verse in. I normally listen to sports radio or a pop/hip hop station when in the car. But I was in a “dead zone” where the only stations that would come in were country (mind you, this IS Georgia).
Don’t get me wrong, I do like my country music having grown up most my life in a very rural-pageant and festival lovin’-three stop light-one high school for the entire county-most dirt roads in the state-your dad is probably a farmer-everyone drives tractors on the last day of class-we fixin’ to go do sumin’-south Georgia town. I especially love to listen to country in the summer months. I can’t take a boat ride on the lake without blasting some Kenny, Tim, or Alan on the iPod. But I just normally don’t listen to country, so I’m a little behind on any new songs.
As I was scanning stations, I caught this song at about the 1:30 mark:
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As you may know by now, our wedding is an ode to the Southern way of life. I started to think about Southern Belles and realized that for some of our wedding pictures, I really want to look the part. Not quite as done up as this…
… but still with the same essence. So I hopped on eBay and found a very “Southern” looking lace parasol and matching fan. How great will these look in photos of me in my dress walking around Savannah’s famous historic squares?
Okay hive, I’m officially under ONE MONTH. *screams like a wild woman on the inside*
Ah-hum. Now that I’ve composed myself, I’d like to tell you about my latest accomplishment. I’ve been trying to nail down a lot of my “little” purchases for the big day so they don’t pile up last minute. I just finished buying all my items to complete that age old wedding poem that features little “somethings”.
So what are my “somethings”?
My Something Old/Sixpence:
I need as much “luck” on my side for our wedding day as possible (I still don’t know at a month out how this shindig is going to come together!), so I’m definitely wearing a sixpence in my shoe. I think a lot of people forget about the sixpence as part of the poem. I didn’t forget, but I did piggyback the “old” part of the poem with the sixpence. I decided to make it a special sixpence by ordering one from my mother’s year of birth. Mine looks just like this one, only with a 1958 date.
Featured on Weddingbee
Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
After spending a weekend full of work and mild depression (my Dawgs lost AGAIN, but I knew it was coming), I decided to do one of my favorite Sunday activities: catch up on Weddingbee! On the very first page I saw Miss Fro Yo’s post about Ruche.com. Despite better judgment, the shopaholic in me decided to click on the site and take a gander. That’s when I stumbled across what I thought would be the end to my junior bridesmaids’ dress search.
Um, how perfect would this dress have matched my bridesmaids?!?
I quickly added two dresses in my girls’ sizes to my shopping bag and was on my way to check out when I got…*gasp*…an error page!
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It’s been awhile since I wrote about my bouquet-making adventures. In the first installment, I told you about my mock trial run. But a lot has happened since then. I’ve changed my mind about our wedding colors and opted to change my bouquet to reflect that. I sold the old, all-white peony bouquet and ordered some new, light pink peonies*! Aren’t they fabulous?!? 
I swear they’re really pink. The flash seems to wash them out!
Along with the new bouquet, I switched up the bouquet handle.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
I’m slowly checking off the gazillion and one items on my wedding to-do list as the days quickly tick down. The latest accomplishment was settling on 3/5ths of my niece-entourage’s attire. After some serious lusting over Miss Ramen’s flower girl dress find, I set out on my own search for the cutest little dresses I could find to fit my cheek-squeezin’ worthy gals. I’m extremely excited about my finds and am secretly envious of all the dresses, especially this one with its precious rosettes:
This weekend I inadvertently completed a minor wedding task while preparing for another wedding-related event: my bachelorette party! I can’t write about the party until I get photos back from my girls, but I can sure tell you about that minor task in the meantime! 
*Cue overly-dramatic drum roll for said minor task!*
I finally picked out my wedding day nail polish color!
Since getting engaged, every time I needed a manicure I’d use it as an excuse (aka “research”) to try a new shade of nail polish for the wedding. I’d run around for a few weeks imagining it with my wedding ensemble until it had finally chipped away to the point of no return. Then I’d wait until I could come up with a good enough reason to shell out $15-25 for another manicure (usually for a wedding shower/party/etc.). I had just about given up finding the perfect shade (nearly opting to go with the good ol’ french mani standby) when I stumbled upon this absolutely gorgeous line of OPI nail colors fit for any bride with a romantic, fairytale-style wedding in mind!
I knew early on that I wanted programs that doubled as fans. Although the historical weather for Savannah in November is usually in the high 60s to low 70s, you never really know how hot an outdoor wedding in the South can get. Better safe than sorry!
I originally planned to make our program fans from scratch. I set out to find inspiration, and quickly ran across these adorable program fans on Etsy:
I’ve only just begun to start scouting out potential hair stylists and makeup artists for my wedding. Is that bad? I’m under 2 months and haven’t come close to finalizing my look. Not so much as even a trial yet!
The good news is that I have been paying more attention to my skincare routine. I drink lots of water and try to keep my diet low in sodium, wash my face in the morning and before going to bed, go light on the makeup (just foundation, mascara, and tinted lip gloss on a daily basis), avoid picking at blemishes (that’s a hard one for me, but luckily my lack of nails due to stress biting makes me give up quickly any time I try), and I’ve been working on getting more sleep. I wish I had the money to splurge on facials and spa treatments, but instead I’ll just have to continue “splurging” on my biggest makeup addiction: MAC cosmetics.
I was first introduced to MAC when I began modeling part-time. My makeup artist (MUA) worked exclusively with the brand. I had never had my makeup professionally done before and the MUA worked absolute wonders on me:
We met with our officiant, aka my hometown pastor, over Labor Day weekend. It was our second and final meeting with him before our big day.
During our meeting, we went over our “marriage inventory”.
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I’ve been here for… 5 months!
Okay, okay. I know I’ve pretty much bailed on you guys in the last few weeks, but I’ve had many good reasons! You’re thinking, “Yeah, they BETTER be good reasons.” Well, let me explain myself before you call in the mobs to burn me at the Weddingbee stake!
First, my final semester of classes began. Along with that came work where I routinely put in 25-40 hours a week, depending on how many shifts I could pick up with my already crazy schedule.
But that’s the mundane stuff. I’ve also been living it up some!
Like a day at the beach and a boat ride in Savannah with my soon-to-be family. It was a nice end to my summer full of unpaid, overworked time at internships.
“Tanning” with FSIL Lab. And by “tanning” I mean 80 SPF, big sunglasses, and an even bigger hat. This Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” was obviously written about me (aside from the “man” part).
Bet you’ve been wondering where I’ve been lately? In Busytown, that’s where. I started my final semester of classes (yay!), landed a second job (WTF was I thinking?!), and worked near full-time last week at my original job; all while continuing to plan this little wedding of ours.
We are *thisclose* to our 2 month mark and I am about to $hit bricks full of anxiety. No, I’m not being dramatic. My stomach churns just thinking about how little time we have left. But at the same time, I’m soooo ready for the day to be here! Conflicted much?
Somehow during a week full of 64 hours at work, 11 hours of class, and a coed wedding shower (pics soon!), I found the time to crank out our DIY wedding maps! I never really considered maps a priority, but after seeing Mrs. Ballet Flat make it look easy as pie, I decided to give it a try and shocked myself with the result. Here’s what I came up with in PowerPoint:
Click on map for more detail!
To be completely honest, I’m no stranger to PowerPoint. Mrs. BF’s tutorial was definitely thorough and easy to follow, but I’m also not a beginner. While the logistics were easy to me, it was still a tedious task!
Read more…
The future in-laws have done it again… they’re getting me a horse and buggy to carry me to and from the ceremony!
When I found out, I was initially thrilled! But then I started thinking that it may be a bit unnecessary. I mean, I could just ride the trolley there and back, right? Why spend extra money when we don’t need to? We’re trying to cut back on frivolous items, not tack them on!
I voiced these concerns to Mr. Lab and his sister, but they weren’t having it. Mr. Lab is a very traditional, Southern-raised lad and I’ve come to realize that like me, he has a few “expectations” of his wedding and future bride.* One of them is the romantic view of his soon-to-be wife riding up in a horse-drawn carriage moments before exchanging vows. He was sold on the idea the moment he heard plans of it. And he’s not budging. Because he rarely requests anything wedding-wise, I’ve decided to let him have this one. Apparently being a buggy bride is no frivolous thing in Mr. Lab’s book!
So for an extra $175, I will be chauffeured in one of these beauties:
I’ve slowly been collecting supplies for our OOT welcome bags the last few weeks. Although they’re not finished, I wanted to share my plans for them!
I’m using brown bags and found this adorable package presentation that I thought looked very “Southern”. If you haven’t figured it out by now, this entire wedding will scream “the South” to our guests.
If I can’t find cheap doilies, I might just use some lace ribbon as an accent. I’m also putting little tags on the outside that will say something like “Welcome to Savannah!”, “Thanks for being our guests!”, etc.
Moving on to the insides of our bags…
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Mrs. Labrador Retriever, Athens/Savannah Age and Occupation: 24, Student/Sports Reporter Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Physical Therapy Assistant Student/Future Dr. of PT Engagement Date: December 31, 2008 Wedding Date: November 2009 Venue: Whitfield Square/Savannah Station About Me: I'm working on my second degree from UGA (Go Dawgs!). I'm a self-proclaimed attention-w****. If it involves a camera, I'm in front of it! You'll never meet a girlier tomboy than me. I can go toe to toe with any guy on the subject of college football, and lift more than any girl in my gym, all without chipping a nail. I hope to someday be the only person you want delivering your sports news. My FI and I are the loving parents of three Labrador Retrievers (one of each color) and are planning a "Southern Romantic Charm" wedding in the beautiful, historic city of Savannah. I'm not extreme in anything except moderation... and wedding planning.
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