Real Talk: My parents are Embarrassing

We had a crazy whirlwind of a Memorial Day weekend!  On Friday night when the boy got off work (at 9:00...) we headed down to Atlanta for a wedding.  Although we originally planned to leave Saturday morning super early (well, actually the original plan was for the boy to have the day off on Friday, but that didn't happen), but came up with a completely unique and never-thought-of-before idea to leave that evening and miss all the holiday traffic.  As it turns out, we were somehow not the only ones to come up with this idea and we still hit traffic on the KY/TN border.  At 1:30am we were only halfway(!!!) and I was not a happy camper.  We stopped to use the restroom and get some coffee and I decided that I needed a pint of gas station ice cream as well...yeah I did.  So the boy and I shared a pint of cookie dough ice cream as we hopped back on the interstate and made it to my sister's house around 4:00am.

1:30am gas station look....

Lucky for me, my body is trained to wake up around 6:15 every morning, and even on the days where I "sleep in", I can only make it to about 7:30am.  Saturday morning was no different, and so after only 3.5 hours of sleep, I got up and proceeded straight to the living room to kiss all over this little nugget:

That face is surely worth getting up early for.

After going on a 3 mile walk through my sister's hill-filled neighborhood (it was 90 degrees and GA humid....running was out) and getting a $10 manicure at the chop-shop around the corner, I headed back to the couch for a nap while the boy was off with my brother and Dad drinking beer and eating crap he knows I don't approve of (i.e., unhealthy crap like fried bologna sandwiches...BARF).  At 4:30 we were out the door and on our way to Katie's traditional Greek wedding.

I was a little curious about the Greek wedding ceremony, and I will admit, I did wonder a little if Katie had to take an oil bath in a baby pool like Sex-and-the-City-Aiden did in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  My guess on that was "no" but I never bothered to ask.  Katie and Vasilis ("Billy") did a great job in their wedding program of highlighting all the traditions of the ceremony so that the guests would understand what each step meant.  The ceremony itself lasted almost an hour, and throughout most of that time, the officiant was SINGING everything he said.  No lie...he sang every bible verse, story, prayer, word...  It was by far the most interesting thing I had every seen! 

The Ceremonial Walk - yes, I too first saw this on "Full House" when Uncle Jesse's family came to visit

The Stefana Crowning - this is when the couple actually become husband and wife.

After the ceremony we got the party started at The Trolley Barn in Atlanta.  Katie and Billy had a great reception venue, and an awesome band, which I had been hearing seriously awesome things about.  I immediately got one of the bride's signature cocktails in my hand (Pomegranate and Prosecco...yumm!!) and braced myself for the parental embarrassment that I knew was inevitable once the dance floor opened up. 

Debauchery walking...

Outdoor tables and cocktail area

Inside table..."family style". 

Me and him...39 days to go!

Bride and Groom!

First dance!

And then the dancing and ridiculousness began...Katie and Billy had an awesome locally famous band.  Decked out in full-on 70's attire, they played some awesome tunes!  I highly suggest checking out Yacht Rock if you are planning a wedding or event in the area.  We danced like fools all night, but there were no bigger fools than my parent's who pretty much do this at every wedding they go to (or really anywhere they go that plays music). 

Still somewhat normal....

Yes, this is for real...



And of course, there was this....

I think it goes without saying that a good time was had by all.  When I woke up on Sunday morning, I literally had sore butt muscles from dancing all night...no joke.  Luckily for us, we had a very relaxing morning complete with playing with the nephews...

Intense puzzle happenings with Drew and The Boy

Mason LOVES hands and feet!!

Mason loves bath time too :-)

So, there you have it...our exciting, jam-packed holiday weekend.  How was your Memorial Day??

My Best Friend's Wedding

Howdy y'all! Remember a few weeks ago when I was talking all about how Miranda's wedding weekend was coming up and I promised to post pictures? Well here I am, making good on that promise. Unfortunately for me, I did not make good on the promise I made to myself to take TONS of pictures of everything from the bridesmaid luncheon to the rehearsal dinner to the ceremony.....mostly I just have "getting ready" and reception photos to choose from. Here goes!

Me, Miranda, and Whit at the bridemaid luncheon

"Special Bridesmaid" ring dish :)

Miranda holding her bridesmaid charm cake!  So cute!

I pulled the "Guardian Angel" charm from the cake...it means, you guessed it, I have a guardian angel!

My hairdo for the day...cute from the back...not so cute from the front :(



Miranda's hair...gorgeous!!

Stunning!

Ain't she purrrty?!

Wedding cake..."lovebirds" theme throughout the reception...

Candle arrangement when you walked into the reception

Pics of the bride and groom with candles and little details like this all over the venue...it was very pretty!

Seating chart...notice the "lovebirds" in the tree?

Me and the boy...6 weeks to go!!

Miranda and Brian during all the toasts!

One of 4 toast-givers...I totally held it together...sort of...

First dance...Van Morrison's "Crazy Love"  which was on our short list for first dance songs too!  It was lovely!

Okay, so for serious...wasn't Miranda a beautiful bride?  It was most definitely a jam-packed weekend, starting with the Bridesmaid Luncheon on Friday morning and ending in the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that evening.  On Friday night, Whit and I stayed downtown at the Hilton with Miranda and woke up bright and early for a full day of mimosas and primping before the big event.  Everything went off without a hitch and the reception was stunning!  Miranda did a great job of paying attention to the little details, and in such a big venue with so many different rooms and spaces, there was not any areas that weren't decorated in some way.  I can't wait to see the photgrapher's photos from the day :).

It was such an honor to be part of Miranda and Brian's big day, and even though everything was beautiful, I still think the highlight of my (and I think it's safe to say it was the highlight for the other bridesmaids as well) experience that weekend was when the other bridesmaids and myself (6 of us total) got to help Miranda go to the bathroom...twice.  Yes, that would be 4 girls to hold up the tulle, one to hold the train, and one to pull the underwear up and down.  Ah, that's what friends are for!!

That time I almost cried at Joseph A Bank

Okay real talk y'all....this wedding stuff is getting serious.  As my Macy's registry so kindly reminded me, I have 58 days left to go.  When you are engaged for nearly a year, you think that you have plenty of time to get everything together...but that is NOT true.  Pretty soon you've got less than two months and you find yourself scheduling mental heath days from work because you're going crazy.  Throw in the added bonus of planning the wedding in a different city from where we live and I'm pretty sure I will be ready to be fitted for my straight jacket by the time the big day rolls around.

All that being said, we ordered the suits from Joseph A Bank on Tuesday, and seeing as how we've been working with them for four months on picking out the suits, I thought this would be an easy task.  Wrong I was.  Part of our problem with the suits has been that we both had a very clear vision of what we wanted - a stone colored light-weight summer suit.  When we first began looking, the summer suits weren't out yet, so we were checking in every few weeks to see what they had in stock.  As our groomsmen got measured (some at this particular store), we would call in and give the store their measurements for our file so they would be on hand when we came in to order.  We ended up finding the suit we wanted in stock at another store, and took pictures of the tag to take into the store we had been working with. 

On Tuesday, the boy and I met on our lunch breaks to order the groomsmen suits which, given how much we had researched them and talked to the store managers, should have been a 15 minute ordeal.  Once the order was going in, the salesman got to the second suit and told us that the suit we were looking at didn't come in a 36 short, but the smallest size they had was a 38 short.  The boy and I exchanged looks, but quickly decided that we had no choice but to just get the size they had for our Best Man.  Then, the salesman really put the icing on the cake and said, "Oh and by the way, these suits don't come in separates." 

This is kind of where I started to lose it...

"What does that mean?" I asked him.  "Oh, just that you don't get to pick your pant size...you just get the pants in 6 sizes lower, so if you order a 40 jacket, you get a 34 pant..." he responds.  "The executive and signature suits come in separates, but the summer suits don't."

And this is where I actually did lose it...

"Are you kidding me??  We have been working with you all for months, only looking at the summer blends in suits.  You have 5 different suit options written in our file, and all of them are summer suits.  Why is this the first time we are hearing about this??!!" 

"Ummm...I'm sorry....uhhh..."

"No, this is ridiculous!  We have been back and forth with our groomsmen, shuffling them in stores to get their sizes, collecting money from them, which we have clearly misled them about since they will all have to get extra alterations on their suits now."  All the while the boy is standing silent looking at the both of us with a look of helpless bewilderment.  "Well I guess just order the suits however they come!  I mean, we HAVE to have suits!"

Then I looked at K and just said "I am so pissed!"  The salesman kept mumbling about how he was sorry and he should have told us, and then said he would see what he could do about the cost.  At that moment I could feel my eyes wanting to well up and steam coming out of my ears and nose.  Before I opened my mouth again and singed him with fire, I decided I needed to go look at ties and kept repeating to myself, Don't cry at the suit store, don't cry at the suit store....

By the time I got back to the register, the salesman was totalling everything up and turned his screen around so we could see the final order.  Then he told us that they would all ship out from different locations and pointed out the estimated ship date for each suit...JUNE 15th!!!!  Despite being told that suits typically come in within 7-10 business days, we were looking at over a month!  I just looked at the guy and said, "June 15??"  That's 3 weeks before the wedding, and they still have to get altered???  That is unacceptable.  Am I right?  After pretty much reading him the riot act again, the salesman got on the phone with God knows who to find out if they could ship out any sooner.  The salesman assured me that they suits would be done in time for the wedding, and ended up giving us $20 of each suit (which we are giving back to the groomsmen since they have to have additional alterations).

While I am glad that they did something about the suit price, I am still frustrated that we have to jump through additional hoops to get the suits where we need them...just not something I needed at this point in the planning process.  Next week we will likely be ordering our wedding bands, so please pray that it goes smoother than the suit ordeal...God knows it will be more expensive. 

All that said, my dear friend Miranda did make me feel loads better later that same day when she dropped in on me at work to drop of my bridesmaid dress for her wedding (which is on Saturday!) fresh from alterations.  I recounted the suit buying experience to her, and she responded with, "Oh that's nothing!  I cussed out the lady at Kinko's last night because I couldn't pull up my yahoo mail on their computers to print out the seating charts."  Ahhh....perspective....

So with all that said, I am gearing up for full-on bridesmaid/bff duty this weekend and lots of fun memories too.  I promise to take pictures and give a full recounting of her wedding, which I know will be stunning! 

Last but not least, I leave you with this lovely picture of my future husband from his bachelor weekend at the Ky Derby....this is him in the infield wearing a purple and lavender sombrero, with a bottle of whisky and a ball in chain with my name on it around his wrist.  Good times.

Miranda's Bachelorette Bash

For the last week I have been a little more exhausted and irritable than usual...why you ask?  Because I spent last weekend in Atlanta partying it up with Miranda for an intimate bachelorette bash...and let's face it, when you are pushing 30 it takes a week to recover.  So even though I have been a little off my game, it was all worth it to be able to celebrate with one of my very best friends.

Although we planned to leave Lexington around noon last Friday, we ended up getting a little behind schedule when Miranda got called back into work for a last minute firedrill at noon....we were waiting for her when she finally made it home, and threw our bags in the car and headed out.  The ride was going pretty smooth for the first hour and a half, and Miranda had even packed us little road trip gift bags with bottled water, magazines, advil, gum, sugar free redbull, and trailmix among other things.  However, not even 2 hours in, we hit stop and go traffic (okay, mostly "stop", not so much "go") that kept us on Jellico Mountain for TWO HOURS!  Needless to say, we were about to lose our minds, and someone in our car may or may not have peed in front of God and everybody on the shoulder of the road while in said traffic.  But that's neither here nor there.

We finally arrived at my sister's house on Friday night around 9:00...just in time to huff down a meal and a glass of wine before I could blink.  I kissed on my nephew for a bit and relaxed before we ultimately decided that if we were indeed going to carry out our plan of drinking all day Saturday, we better scoot on to the store to pick up all the fixins' for Mimosas. 

This was where we hit a little snag.  While at the store, we divided and conquered and all ended up at the u-scan all checking out at the same time.  While Miranda was digging in her purse to get her ID for the cashier, she got this horrified look on her face as she realized that not only was her ID hot in her purse, it was not in Atlanta at all.  It was actually sitting in the console of her car in Lexington....

Thus begins the bridesmaids' test of resourcefulness...what do you do when the bachelorette forgets her ID for her own bachelorette party??  I'll tell you what you do.  Step one is to sound the horn on facebook.  Step two is to decide on a plan B in case the ID cannot be recovered.  Step three is to have FedEx same-day ship it on Saturday for $350.  Wait...okay scratch step three...that was was a definite no go.  So I worked on plan b while Whit and Mir worked on finding a way to get the ID in-hand.  Luckily for us, when we got up Saturday morning, Miranda discovered that an acquaintance had seen a post on facebook and just happened to be flying from Lexington to Atlanta for a layover on her way to a tropical vacation.  She agreed to bring the ID to the security check point, and luckily the TSA agent was having a good day and passed it through the the eager bachelorette who was waiting on the other side of security at the Atlanta airport.

Crisis averted!  Of course, once we had the ID in hand, Miranda proceeded to get carded by exactly no one for the remainder of our trip. 

Miranda after getting her ID back!

The rest of the trip went pretty smoothly.  We successfully drank all day Saturday by starting our day with mimosas, drinking margaritas at Tacqueria del Sol at lunch and wine once we got to the hotel room and at dinner...

Breakfast of Champions...Blueberry Morning cereal, mimosas, and leftover Easter candy.

We stayed the the W Hotel in Midtown and were treated to a wonderful surprise of wine and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us in our room.  The guy who checked us in at the front desk also agreed to send up the strippers when they arrived...and when we confessed that we hadn't actually ordered a stripper, he agreed to provide the male entertainment himself at the promise that we would "make it mist" by each throwing a $1 bill at him.  Once we had popped the wine open and indulged in some choco strawberries, we all had a toast and then promptly ordered 2 more white fluffy robes to be delivered to the room so the 4 of us could lounge comfortably until it was time to get ready.

We relaxed in the room for a couple hours before finally getting ready, sharing gifts with the bride-to-be, and taking a $20 cab ride one block to dinner at Gilberts in the gayest area of Atlanta.  No really...dinner was absolutely delicious, but we were for sure the only chicks there.  For sure. 

Me and my sister

The girls before dinner

Me and the bride to be!

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel while I blew a whistle shaped like a penis most of the way.  When we arrived, we promptly headed to Whiskey Park where we had ordered a drink before getting escorted into the velvet rope area where Champagne and bottle service were waiting for us.  I proceeded to dance like an absolute idiot (including a solid hour where I danced only with my elbows after some drunk B broke Whit's champagne glass with her elbow).  After a solid evening of mixed drinks, champagne, and touching the bar back inappropriately just for fun, we called it a night at about 3:30 am and got a solid 5 hours of sleep in. 

Our table set up!

And so begins the hour where I photobomb all my own photos...

Another photobomb...and a lovely face.

Blowing my penis whistle...I would later blow this in every stranger's face that dared to pass me by...

All in all it was a pretty wonderful night altogether, and hopefully a good time had by all.  The bachelorette had fun as well, and was a real fashion trendsetter by wearing her bachelorette sash several different ways throughout the evening!

Anywho...I successfully caught up on no additional sleep this weekend and am fairly confident I won't for another month at least.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

What I'm loving, What I'm Doing, and What I'm Wanting Wednesday

Even though I am still reeling from exhaustion after celebrating Miranda's bachelorette party this past weekend in Atlanta, there are many things I am loving, doing, and wanting this Wednesday.  So, with that said, I thought I might link up and with Jamie at This Kind of Love for What I'm Loving Wednesday and share it all with you!

First up, I am LOVING my new Erin Condren planner I got from Miss Whitney for my birthday.  I literally do not know how I have made it this far in my LIFE without it, let alone through 10 months of wedding planning.  Well hello there organization and to-do lists...it's oh so nice to meet you!

I am also loving finally getting my thank-you cards from my Bridal shower, and really loving that it's been like Christmas around here for the last week with all the shower gifts that were sent directly to our house.  Love it!

I am loving way too many of the Coach Handbags in the new spring/summer collection that it is making it hard to decide which one I would like to spend my birthday gift cards on.  What I am not loving is the price tag (obviously) and trying to convince myself that it is okay to get the one I really want and pay the difference...

 

I am also loving the Penzey spices that my sister got me at my bridal shower...and for sure loving that I didn't even realize that I spelled the word "Penzey" wrong in the thank you card I sent her as well.  She hand-picked 8 spices that she knew I would love, and they are all amazeballs.  

Also loving that not only is our honeymoon booked and paid for, I also got my passport in the mail!  Mexico here we come...in 2 more months that is!

Lastly, I am love, love, loving the spectacular weekend I had with these gals (more on that to come in the next post)!

Happy Wednesday friends!!  What are you loving today??