146 Days...

I have to update almost every day now! We're getting SO much done! As I type, Mom is finishing up my wedding veil and if I say so myself it is GORGEOUS!! I've tried on my dress several times today so that we can make sure it's the right length. I practiced walking in it and in my shoes. We invited my dad to come to the basement to see me in my dress for the first time. He declined saying he didn't want to see it until the wedding which really scares me. I started crying when my mom brought it up and we had to hold toilet paper under my face so that I wouldn't get tears on the dress. I also browsed the internet for hours looking for the perfect guest book and napkins. I found a beautiful guest book and the perfect napkins and ordered both. I also ordered a parasol for the day of the wedding. It's blue of course and I think it is perfect for pictures and to keep the sun off me :) I'm almost done with the program design. I have to do some more research on exactly what I want, but it's been really fun designing it so far! I am constantly checking stuff off my list! It feels so good to be getting closer and to be getting things done!

147 Days...

Merry Christmas!! It has been so nice to relax all day and not really do anything! My whole family has pitched in to help me with invitations and we're done with what we can do for now. I'm still trying to get a few addresses and I have to get some more ribbon, but we bought our WalMart out so I have to find some somewhere else so we're just kind of pausing on the last 40 or so invitations. They are perfect in every way! I think they're absolutely beautiful and they're exactly what I wanted! It's been a really big mess on our breakfast room table for awhile now, but we cleaned it all up for Christmas so we could have somewhere to sit! We got a ton of errands done a few days ago. My mom and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond so she could help me know what things to register for, like what the best cookware and bakeware stuff is. John Hoyt and I are registering as soon as I get back to Georgia so I wanted her advice and I also didn't want to have to spend forever registering at every place. We also got the combs for my veil and the flowers for my hair. They're beautiful and I am hoping it all looks good! Yesterday John Hoyt bought our comforter for our bed! I've had an eye on it for awhile and I was looking at it online and panicked because it was on clearance and not available online. We went to several stores here in PA and they couldn't even look to see if it was available at other stores. John Hoyt was sweet enough to drop by and see if they had it at the Mall of Georgia, and luckily they did!! Dad called them and got the clearance price and then John Hoyt got it for an even better price, so even though it seems small, I think God really blessed us with that. I LOVE that comforter and I couldn't find anything even close to how much I love it. I'm just really thankful that we were able to get it and at such an amazing price! It's one small step closer to starting our life together! I really miss him and hate that we can't spend Christmas together, but I've had a wonderful time with my family and it has been so nice to just spend the day together relaxing! Next year will definitely be different, but we're going to work something out to spend time with our families somehow! We still have to finish my veil and I have to design our programs. All this DIY stuff is making me kind of crafty! I hope each of you have had a wonderful Christmas!

152 Days...

I haven't been able to do as much recently because I've been working part time, but today was filled with a lot of e-mails and phone calls. The invitation printer e-mailed me a proof of our invitations and they are BEAUTIFUL!! I can't wait to get them in! I also want to get to work on the addressing because I know that will take forever! Mom and I have been working pretty hard trying to get some stuff done. It seems like we're not getting anything done, but we've done a lot of stuff. We are about to start the long process of making all the favors, designing the programs, assembling the invitations and addressing them, and all the other tedious things we need to do. I'm excited though, because they're all one step closer to getting married! John Hoyt and I get more excited daily and the closer we get, the more anxious we get!

157 Days...

I had to take John Hoyt to the airport yesterday so that he could fly back to Georgia. I cried almost the whole afternoon the day before and cried on and off all day yesterday. It's only two and a half weeks apart, but that's the most we've done in awhile. With the wedding getting closer, it's getting harder and harder to say bye. The good news is that I have almost a whole month to devote to wedding planning, getting organized, and moving. While John Hoyt was here, he and I were able to choose the wording of our invitations, go to the printer and choose the font, layout, etc., decide where we're going to register, made a general list of what we want to register for, and made several other decisions. Friday before we left, I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out our wedding photo albums (for all our extra prints), the flowergirl basket, the fabric for my veil (my mom's going to make it), and a few other things. Today, we finalized the guest list, organized it, and worked on getting addresses that we didn't already have, wrote all payment dates in our calendars (very important---I always get dates mixed up if I don't write them down), and got all my papers organized in my huge wedding notebook. I never realized how long all the details would take. There is a lot of organizing and paperwork, not just decisions and research. But it's been a lot of fun :) I'm just glad I have a few weeks to work on all this stuff.

163 Days...

Well, I finished my last final this morning around 8:45 for the fall semester! It's hard to believe I only have one more semester left of college and only one semester left until John Hoyt and I can live in the same 20-mile radius again! It's been WAY too long since we've lived close to each other.
Over the break, I have TONS of wedding planning to do! John Hoyt is driving up with me and staying until Tuesday, so we're going to go pick out the font and wording of our invitations at some point so that I can go ahead and get them printed and addressed. John Hoyt and I are also going to hopefully talk to a bank about living options so we can make an informed decision. Mom and I are planning on addressing all the invitations, and possibly making the programs for the ceremony. I would like to get as much done as I possibly can because I know that I am going to be so busy next semester.
I talked to my MOH, Bethany, this past week a lot and we came up with dates for some showers, which I'm really excited about. I have the best MOH and bridesmaids ever! They have been so supportive and have been such great listeners and Katelyn is almost as excited as I am! I have so many little details to tackle in the next month...I need to make a list :). I also will be packing up my Pennsylvania room to bring all my stuff back so that I don't have to move it later down the road. That will be really sad, but I'm thankful that I'm not packing up a room that I've lived in for years or anything like that. That would be WAY too emotional.
I talked to my Pop who is marrying us yesterday for awhile. We worked out some ceremony details and John Hoyt and I will be talking to him while we're there for Christmas to finalize the order of the ceremony. We're also going to plan a weekend next semester to go over to Alabama and do our pre-marital counseling with him.
I know I have a break, but I feel like I'll be just as busy or even more busy than I normally am, but at least it will be doing fun stuff for the wedding and spending time with my family!

180 Days...

Yesterday was officially 6 months until the wedding! We did a photoshoot with Katelyn for her class yesterday and they turned out soooo cute! I'm in love with them! They should be posted to Facebook soon :) We got to go on a double date with our friends Tori and Mitch on Saturday and we got to spend the day together yesterday which was a lot of fun. We basically just relaxed. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, and I have a feeling that Mom and I are going to do some wedding planning while I'm there!

185 Days...

Well, flowers have now been finalized!!! I'm getting more and more anxious for May 21 to get here. Everytime I think about it, I am filled with emotions. I was listening to the song that I'm walking down the aisle to the other day, and I just started sobbing. I'm just so ready for it to get here and for John Hoyt and I to finally be husband and wife, to live in the same county and even in the same house! Every week it gets harder to say goodbye to him for another week. We have Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, which means I will be in Pennsylvania for the holidays and we won't be seeing each other a whole lot. That fact is rough. The good news is I won't be taking classes and I'll only be working a little bit while I'm in PA, so I'll have lots of time to pack, get organized, and do wedding planning! Mom found the perfect place to get the invitations printed and she and I are planning on assembling and addressing them while I'm at home so when the time comes, she can just send them out. I tried on my dress the other day and it still is too big, which is a good thing! I am planning on getting it altered sometime in March. I am still so in love with it! I can't believe how fast the semester has flown by. When I get back from Thanksgiving, I will have one week of classes and one week of finals and then I'll be done with the semester! I know next semester is going to go by even faster because I will be SO busy! The good news is that John Hoyt is almost done with his truck and then he and I will have more time together to discuss the decisions we need to make together. Get here fast May!!

194 Days...

What. A. Crazy. Semester. I have been so busy recently, I've barely had time to make my bed, much less do a lot of wedding planning. My mom and I have talked a lot about some of the details, and she has been so nice to call some printers and get quotes for invitations. Luckily, I will be going home two weeks from tomorrow for Thanksgiving and hopefully we will be able to work some stuff out then. I will be going home for about a month in a month and that is when we will get a lot done. We are hoping to get invitations printed and addressed, make some final decisions about the ceremony, and get a lot of other stuff done!! I know that next semester will be just as crazy, if not crazier, so I'm hoping that we will get most of the big stuff done by the end of Christmas break. Saturday was mine and John Hoyt's 4 and a half year anniversary. We are so happy and so excited about our marriage. I think about the marriage part all the time now. I'm having a blast planning the wedding, but I am just so ready to be married to this man that God sent to me that it is all I can think about these days. :) We got some tentative shower dates on the calendar too, so I'm really excited about all that! Pretty soon the semester will be over and I can just focus on the wedding.

220 Days

John Hoyt and I got to go home this weekend to Pennsylvania! It was a much needed 5 days with my family and with him. Mom and I got the fabric for my veil (she is making it) and the fabric for Bethany's sash (maid of honor) and the ring bearer pillow. We also went through all of my childhood pictures and picked out a ton for the wedding slideshow! We went to Walmart to scan them all. We were there for about two hours scanning, even after the photo center closed and the scanner just stopped working. We went ahead and put the order through and when we got there the next day to pick up the CD, they told us that the order had not reached the computer so we had stood there for two hours for nothing. Needless to say, I was pretty angry, but we were able to figure something out and we got all the pictures onto my computer. I still have to get John Hoyt's childhood pictures, but I am planning to do that this weekend hopefully. John Hoyt and my dad had some time to talk about the honeymoon, but John Hoyt won't tell me if they discussed or decided anything or not. He's being super secretive. I am also working with the florist to finish up those details. Things are going well! Just a little over 7 months!

242 Days (8 MONTHS!!!)

Only 8 months away!!!! I can hear singing in my head :) It can't get here fast enough, but I am really enjoying this time that John Hoyt and I have to start building our life together. I am about 95% sure on a florist (finally)! I just have to finalize the decision and then I have the second to last big thing taken care of! I'm going to spend some time this weekend organizing my thoughts and doing some more research. I keep thinking about next semester and about how crazy and fun it's going to be with all my senior stuff and wedding stuff. I've been working out a lot to get in to wedding day shape!! One of my really great friends, Amanda Vitello, really keeps me motivated. John Hoyt and I have even spent a lot of time being active, running, and exercising which I definitely want to continue after we get married. I still have so much to do, but I am checking so much off my list too!

250 Days...

The past two weekends have been full of wedding stuff! I met with three florists during the past two weekends and hope to get a quote from two of them within the next two days so that I can make that final decision. I went shopping last weekend for lots of pretty decorations and found some really cute stuff! John Hoyt and I spent a lot of time talking about the wedding and plans for what we want. We still have some little decisions to make together, like what the guys are going to wear and who is going to print our invitations, etc. but we're making very good progress. We made decisions about when we're going to start looking for a house and also when we're going to register. I started working a little bit on the slideshow this weekend, but I don't have all the pictures scanned that I need, especially of him, so that's a big project that I have to undertake. John Hoyt and I are going up to Pennsylvania in October, so I'm planning to get some of my baby pictures together then. I'm also planning on starting the process of moving everything that I plan to have in our house back to the South that weekend. I went to see my good friend, Ms. Kim on Friday, and she offered to throw me a shower, which I'm very excited about, so I'm going to try to start scheduling that pretty soon as well. Bethany and I went to pick up two of my bridesmaids dresses this weekend, and they are so so so cute!!! It has been so much fun just doing all this great stuff! More updates soon!

263 Days...

I finally sent the confirmation to our caterer yesterday! Wedding planning has still been pretty slow. There isn't very much I can do from here except for making appointments with people for when I go to Braselton next time. John Hoyt and I have so much to discuss but we need to be together to discuss and look over stuff and we haven't really had a chance during the past few weeks. Since this is going to be a long weekend, I'm hoping to get a lot done with him this weekend so that I can take the next steps. The only big thing we have left to do is choose a florist and so I'm hoping that during the next two weekends, I can get a few more quotes and make a decision. I just can't believe we only have 8 and a half more months to go before the big day! I know that next semester is going to be so difficult with all the little details that have to get done. I need to start working on them right now, but with so much going on with my sorority and with school, it seems like I don't really have the time to do much of anything. I am hoping to go to Pennsylvania for my fall break in October and then maybe mom and I can get a lot of stuff done and get some decisions made. A few weeks ago, I was able to go through some of my grandmother's old pictures and get copies of pictures of her and my Pop and also my great-grandparents to display at the wedding. I'm hoping that one of the things I can do during the next two weekends is get some of John Hoyt's family pictures together to make copies of. It's time for all the details! :)

276 Days...

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but wedding planning has significantly slowed down during the past two weeks. I've been so busy with getting ready for school and then starting classes this week that I really haven't had the time or the energy to devote to the wedding. Most of the big decisions have been made, so I feel like I can slow down a little, but I know that I have so much to do still. Whenever I get a free weekend, I'm devoting it to shopping for decorations and the little stuff like the flower girl basket, etc. Getting little stuff done seems like it helps so much, because for some reason it is the little stuff that nags me. I still have to decide on a florist which is difficult because I had no idea that flowers were so expensive! It's been a more relaxed recently, but I'm feeling inspired to start working on it again!

284 Days

I got to spend the weekend with my mom, dad, Taylor, John Hoyt and my extended family this weekend and had a great time! My grandfather turned 70 and we had a huge suprise party with all of his friends and family. It was a great opportunity to show off my fiance and my ring ;-) I tried on my dress for my cousin, two of my aunts, and my grandmother this weekend too! We came to a final decision about a caterer which is a huge load off of me because we've been searching for a few months now. My next project to tackle is the florist. I got one quote, but I want to do some extra research before I make a final decision. My aunt picked up my shoes so I have those and I am in LOVE with them! Now I just have to practice walking so I don't trip down the aisle. My to-do list is still pretty huge but I'm hoping to get a lot done this week, or at least some research done and appointments set up since classes start on Monday. I will finally have a weekend where I don't have to go anywhere this weekend which will be SO nice and I can relax and live out of my room instead of living out of a suitcase for once in the past month or so. That will also give me some extra time to get stuff done from here and make plans for when I go up to Braselton in a few weeks. I was talking to John Hoyt last night and we were talking about how fast the time is going by. I keep thinking I have 9 months until the wedding, but it is going by so fast that it is scary! I can't wait to get married and be married, but the fact that I have SO MUCH to do before then scares me a little. I can't imagine how people plan a wedding in just a few months. The good thing is that I do have some time and I'm having a blast planning it!

290 Days...

There is so much going on for the wedding and it is all so fun and exciting! I've been addressing the save-the-dates for the past two nights trying to get them out before the end of the week. It's so much fun to think about everyone getting them. I know that no one will be as excited as I am! It has been a great week. Work is going well and it is a short week since I'm going to Alabama to see my family this weekend. I've been doing several crafts this week to to add details to the wedding, which is always fun! We considered starting our premarital counseling this weekend, but Pop wanted to wait until a little closer to the wedding. I start classes next Monday for my senior year and I am also involved in a research project that will be presented in Montreal, Canada in March that I've been working on as well, so I'm having to slow down on all the wedding stuff a little. I got some great news yesterday! I will most likely not be working Fridays this fall and I also have no Friday classes in the fall so I will have all day Friday to do wedding stuff and catching up on school and research. This is such a blessing and an answer to prayer. I finally got some references from two brides that have used the caterer we are considering and they both had very positive things to say, so we're most likely going to go in that direction. I have so much to do but it is all so fun! :)

292 Days...

What a week! Last week I got SO much done for our wedding, but in getting stuff done, I have so much more to do. Mom and I met with my wedding coordinator on Tuesday to discuss my ideas for the wedding and to get some advice about different ideas. We also met with a florist and figured out what types of flowers I liked. We should be getting a quote from her very soon. Mom and I went to Charleston from Wednesday until Friday and got so much done! We talked about my ideas and did some shopping as well! We got some decorations, my invitations, and even more ideas. Two weeks ago, Katelyn found this amazing website created by a wedding planner in North Carolina and picked up some amazing ideas from that. Also on Tuesday, Mom and I went with Bethany, my maid of honor, to get her dress. Saturday, we went with four of my bridesmaids and Aunt Donna to get the rest of the bridesmaid dresses. Since everyone is wearing different dresses, it was so much fun seeing what everyone picked out. Everyone's dresses are beautiful and they look so great! I also purchased my shoes for the wedding. I am so in love with them. We had to get them from a different store in Birmingham because they didn't have my size, but Aunt Donna is going to get them for me today. We are a little over 9.5 months away from the wedding. It's hard to believe that it is so close, but I am so ready!

309 Days...

The days are flying by right now. We are getting more and more done! We finalized the guest list, which was really hard, especially when you don't know who some of the people are. Yesterday I ordered our save-the-date magnets! I can't even describe how excited I am about them. I love them so much and I can't wait to get them and start addressing them to send out to our family and friends. I went with one of my bridesmaids, Katelyn, to pick out her dress since she won't get to be there when the rest of us go. She thought she knew exactly which one she wanted, but when we got there, they had just released their fall collection, and we found another one that we were equally in love with. We couldn't decide, so we went to Cracker Barrel instead of buying a dress :). She's planning on going with her mom sometime next week to decide. Mom is coming down week after next and I'm going to continue to do research until then.

313 Days

John Hoyt and I had an amazing weekend. I got to spend some time with my best friend/maid of honor, Bethany, and then John Hoyt and I just spent some time relaxing. We went to the pool with John Hoyt's brother-in-law and his neice and nephew and relaxed all of Sunday. Something was blooming in north Georgia, I think because I had several asthma attacks Saturday night and Sunday and was not able to go to church because my medicine makes me feel awful. Sunday afternoon, we drove to Jonesboro and met with a caterer for a tasting. Even though I didn't feel well, we had a great drive. We loved the caterer and the food! We're going to check into a few more caterers and then make our decision. I got our engagement pictures in the mail today and I'm going to post them on my Facebook really soon. We decided on a save-the-date this weekend as well, and once I get the pictures into the proof, we'll make sure we're good with it and then order them to send out sometime in the next month or two. We're getting closer and closer every day and I just can't wait to get there :). It is going by so fast, and I'm sure I'm going to want it to slow down a little in the spring when I'm trying to get everything done on time, but right now I'm so happy it's flying by.

318 Days

I'm getting more and more excited every day! I've been making a lot of appointments with vendors. I have an appointment with a florist at the end of the month when mom comes down and I have a really good feeling about her, but I want to talk to a few more to make sure I'm getting the best deal. John Hoyt and I just got the rights to our engagement pictures and so I should be getting them in the next few days. After we get those, we are planning on choosing a save-the-date this weekend to order and send out in the next couple of months. Also, on Sunday, we are going to meet with a caterer, one I've been talking to for about a month to do a tasting. So, in short, we are knocking a lot of big stuff out during the next month or so hopefully. I start school again on August 16, so I'm hoping to get a lot of stuff done before that, but I'm also sticking with not getting too overwhelmed. My wedding to-do list is about 5 pages long, but we are slowly checking things off, which feels so good. It's hard to believe that we're almost in the 200s!!! If you are reading this, your prayers for smooth riding would be greatly appreciated! John Hoyt and I are so excited about beginning our life together as husband and wife. We are hoping to start premarital counseling soon, which I'm so excited about. I want to be the best wife ever :). I just pray every day that God would guide all of our decisions, big and small, and that He would continue to be the center of our relationship and that we would continue to draw closer together and closer to Him. It's going to be an amazing 10 months :)

319 Days

All those years I was so excited about planning a wedding. I couldn't wait to meet the guy of my dreams. Then I met John Hoyt and I dared to hope that one day he would ask me to marry him. A little over 3 and a half years later, he gave me the honor of asking me to be his wife and all of my dreams came true. Now, after all those years of anxious anticipation about planning this wedding, I am realizing how much stress goes into one day. Last week was a really rough, emotional, hard week full of tears and anxiety. I felt so overwhelmed with not only the wedding but what all has to be done before the wedding that has nothing to do with it. In the next 10 and a half months, I have to complete my undergraduate degree, apply for graduate schools, buy a house or find a place to live, decorate a house, move out of my apartment, deal with all the legal stuff, and plan a wedding. It's a lot and last week I wasn't very happy about everything that was going on. I had so much on my mind and it was weighing me down and turning me into someone that I'm not. We finally reached the weekend and Thursday night I sat on ooVoo with John Hoyt, talking about the wedding and I broke down. He told me that I needed to stop stressing so much and to just enjoy this time. He told me that it wasn't necessary to try to get everything done at once and that I needed to just calm down and do one thing at a time. We had an amazing weekend in Washington D.C. with Jackie and my parents. Taylor was in the July 4th parade there with his marching band, so it was a lot of fun. It was so good to relax and talk about other stuff besides the wedding. My mom and I talked a little about a few small things and John Hoyt and I made some small decisions, but it was nice to just talk about other stuff. This weekend made me decide to stop stressing so much and to just do one thing at a time. I keep forgetting that I have more than 10 months to get this done and that even if I do want to do as much as possible this summer that I don't have to do everything this summer. I know there will be times when I will get stressed and I will have a very busy year, but all of the stuff that is keeping me busy is all really great changes that I'm ready for. The most important thing is that in 319 days, I will be Mrs. John Hoyt Richardson and we will finally live in the same town after 4 years and we even get to live in the same house :). I can't wait until that day, but until then, I have a lot of fun stuff to keep me busy and to make it all fly by.

344 Days To Go!

I'm getting to the point now where all I can do is think about the wedding. It's been so much fun so far, but I had a stressful moment a couple of days ago while doing some research and looking over my budget. I called my mom, and asked for help, and since then it's all we've talked about. She is such an amazing mom and such an amazing help! We decided for sure on linens and now we're focusing on a caterer.

John Hoyt and I did engagement pictures on Sunday, which was a blast! It was really hot, but I think we were able to get some really good pictures. The locations were beautiful, so I'm counting on the pictures being beautiful as well! We should be able to view them online in a couple of weeks. With camp starting tomorrow, I've been attempting to do wedding stuff while also doing camp stuff. I don't know why I feel so urgent about the wedding. I just want to get most of the major stuff out of the way during the summer while I'm not in school, not house hunting, and not doing parties, showers, and all that fun stuff. I want to get the wedding stuff taken care of (what I can now) and focus on enjoying school and the fun of being a bride!

John Hoyt is such a sport. He listens to me when I want to talk about the wedding and always gives me his input and we always have good discussions about everything. He decided that he is going to keep our honeymoon a secret from me until we get to the airport to leave for our honeymoon, which is amazing and I'm so excited! It's great because it's out of my hands completely, so I can just focus on the wedding.

I feel so blessed that we have such supportive friends and family who have all offered to help. I truly thank God for you and for being in our lives. We wouldnt' be where we are now if it weren't for you!

In Less Than A Year...

We are now less than one year away from our wedding! Now, the real adventure begins! Last weekend, I went home to Pennsylvania and Mom and I did a lot of talking, shopping, and organizing for the wedding. I gathered all of my ideas together and when I got back to Georgia, talked them all over with John Hoyt. I have contacted a caterer and am about to contact a florist that was reccommended to me by a friend that got married a few years ago. Mom and I also went to David's Bridal to look at dresses and choose some fabrics that we felt went well together. We also looked a shoes for me, which of course was fun :). Everything is slowly coming together. Now that we're at under a year, I can really do some planning. I'm hoping to get a lot of it done before the end of the summer so that I don't have a lot to worry about during school. I was able to attend 2 bachelorette parties and a wedding this past weekend and had so much fun, which of course boosted my excitement for my own wedding. We are doing our engagement pictures this coming Sunday with our photographer, which will be wonderful! All in all, I am overwhelmed with joy and excitement for the next year! I will be Mrs. Richardson in 354 days!

The search is on...

370 days. We're almost to only a year away. Recently, I haven't really done a lot of wedding stuff. Just trying to come up with some unique ideas. I am currently doing research for a caterer, florist, and videographer. We're planning on doing engagement pictures very soon. In the mean time, John Hoyt and I are just really enjoying being engaged and planning the next step in our life together. We've been talking about houses a lot and looked at a few. For the most part, we have the same taste, which is really good. I know that when the time is right, we will know exactly what to do. Mom and I planned a weekend for all the bridesmaids to get together to go look at dresses for them. Since all of my bridesmaids are all spread out, summer is really the only time we can all get together.

I feel so blessed that I have John Hoyt as my future husband. I seriously fall more in love every day. As I write this, he is cooking me dinner just because. He gave me a beautiful key necklace from Tiffany's for our 4-year anniversary last night. Our anniversary was on May 6th. He planned a whole day of surprises, including a horseback ride (I've never been on a horse) through Lake Lanier Islands and a very romantic dinner at the SunDial Restaurant in Atlanta. It was so romantic! He is amazing and I couldn't ask for anything better :)

I Have A Dress!!

Wedding planning has been pretty slow recently! We're at 419 days today from our wedding day, so of course there isn't much I can really do right now. I did, however, find the perfect wedding dress! I've tried on probaby close to 40 dresses total and I haven't felt this way about any of them. It is absolutely beautiful! I of couse cannot give any details, but if you're not John Hoyt and you want to know about it, I would be happy to tell you personally ;-) It was actually completely by chance that I got the dress. I heard about the Atlanta Running of the Brides through an e-mail from The Knot and I remembered that I had always wanted to do that, so I decided to go for the experience. The only person that could go with me was my very close friend, Tori, so we met there that Friday afternoon (March 19), right before we started our Spring Break. It took us both forever to get there because traffic in Buckhead was AWFUL! I finally got there first and started sorting through dresses. I had about 5 in my arms before I found the one. I almost didn't pick it up because I had so many but I just grabbed them and carried them to the middle of the floor. There were so many brides there! I dropped them and waited for Tori to get there. I started trying them on and liked a lot of them, but I just kept coming back to my dress. If someone would have described it to me and asked if I would like it, I would have told them no, but I just fell in love with how traditional it was and how unique too. It will need a little altering and we are going to have some additions added, but other than those few things that are easliy taken care of, it is perfect! It was so hot in that place and there were so many beautiful brides. One bride and I had the same taste, so when I would get done with a dress, I would pass it on to her. She was really sweet. There were so many sweet girls. The funniest part of the day was that while I was trying on dresses, one of my sorority flip-flops somehow got swept away in the huge dresses, never to be seen again. I can just imagine some random girl finding a random black and green flip flop in her dream dress bag. Tori and I searched and searched, but I ended up leaving with just one shoe :). When a bride would decide on a dress, everyone in their group would scream really loud and everyone would cheer with them. When I decided on my dress, Tori and I screamed so loud! There were only 2 of us, but we made a lot of noise!! I bought the dress of course and took it on Spring Break with me to PA to show mom. Right now it is at the Butler's house until I can get my coats out of my closet. While on Spring Break, Katelyn, Tori and I went to Kleinfield's in New York City to try on dresses. They are the dress shop featured in "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC. It was so much fun to be there. TLC was taping, but we didn't get to be on TV :(. Our consultant, Erica was so sweet . I really loved some of the dresses I tried on there, but I was mainly there for the experience and I didn't love any of them more than my dress. I am planning on talking to a caterer soon to kind of get an idea of what I want for food, but other than that, nothing is really going on wedding-wise. Our engagement announcement was in the Braselton News this week. We got 5 newspapers :) I'm hoping it will be in the Gwinnett Daily Post in a few weeks too, and I want to put it in the AJC. I know that's a lot, but it's free for most newspapers, so I want the world to know! Too bad you can't put it in USA Today. :)

Weekend of Wedding Planning

This past weekend was a very successful wedding planning weekend, but it was also bittersweet. We said good-bye to John Hoyt's grandmother, Lovie Mae Holder. She passed away Wednesday morning and the viewing was Thursday and the funeral was on Friday. Mom, thankfully, was able to be at the funeral and had the honor of playing the piano at the service. We are planning on finding a way to remember her at the wedding.

Friday evening, Mom and I went to Atlanta to a small bridal boutique where I found an amazing dress. Unfortunately, after I tried it on and fell in love, I caught a glimpse of the price tag and saw an outrageous number, and had to walk away.

Saturday was a more successful day. Mom, Aunt Donna, Gran, Bethany, Katelyn, Jackie and I all spent the day hunting for the perfect dress. When we arrived at David's Bridal, I immediately began to get excited. I tried on four dresses and found one that was beautiful, but didn't really seem to fit me well. Katelyn tried on a bridesmaid dress that I really loved. The problem I'm encountering now with the bridesmaid dresses is that there are several different fabrics. I thought I could get away with everyone having different fabrics as well as different styles, but we took a picture of two different fabrics side by side and one looks a lot darker than the other, so I will have to decide which fabric I want I guess. We'll see :) Next, we drove to Atlanta to Bride Beautiful. There, I found two gorgeous dresses that I was absolutely in love with. One had some beading on the train that I wasn't too fond of, so immediately the other jumped out as "the dress". We kept that in mind as we headed to the next shop, New Natalie's Bridal. This place was very different. The selection was huge and I felt so overwhelmed by how many dresses there were. I chose 5 dresses to start out with. Of those 5, 1 really stood out, but the color was a darker ivory than I wanted, so Katelyn went to find the same dress in a lighter ivory. The dress, aside from being a little too big was gorgeous! The color was amazing and it was almost everything I wanted in a wedding dress. Everyone approved and it jumped to the top of the list. Jackie described the dress at Bride Beautiful as va-va-voom, but this dress as va-va-voom-voom!! I am still thinking about it for a few weeks. If I decide to get that dress, mom and I have decided to add a few touches of lace at the top and possibly the bottom to make it the perfect dress and to also make it a little more unique. The dress really made me feel beautiful and fits our wedding theme perfectly!

On a completely different note, I am still looking at caterers but I have decided on a photographer for sure. I will be sending the deposit off today. Her name is Melody Hendricks and she is amazing! You can check out her gallery and blog at http://www.memoriesbymelody.net/.

Things are still going pretty smooth! I'm obviously having so much fun planning the day for John Hoyt and I to finally get married! We have begun looking at honeymoon destinations, but he is planning the whole thing. We also have been spending a lot of time looking at houses. We have found several that we really love but we're waiting for about nine or ten more months before we buy. It's hard to believe that in the next 15 months, I will be graduating from college, becoming a homeowner, getting married, and Taylor's graduating from high school. It will all happen very fast, but it is all very exciting!

PS: Thank you to all the girls that went with me this weekend! I am so happy you were there with me and it was so much fun spending time with you!

We Have a Date!

For those that don't know, we finally have a date for our wedding! We will be getting married on May 21, 2011! We came to a decision on Thursday (2/25) night. I called Friday morning to book our location, the Braselton-Stover House in Braselton, GA for an evening wedding. I went by the house on Friday evening to make the deposit and talked to the owner for about an hour and a half and filled out all the paperwork. So far, that is all the updates, but I am trying to get all of the paperwork organized and still doing research. My mom is coming down to Atlanta this coming weekend to help me go dress shopping. I have made all of the appointments and will be going to 5 bridal boutiques between Friday and Saturday. I'm going to be updating my website today as well, so check it out! www.theknot.com/ourwedding/EvinWinkelman&JohnHoytRichardson

February 16, 2010: Introduction

So, after more than 3 and a half years, John Hoyt finally proposed! We got engaged on January 2, 2010 in downtown Historic Buford, GA. If you want to read the entire proposal story, you can see our wedding website (still in progress) at: www.theknot.com/ourwedding/EvinWinkelman&JohnHoytRichardson

I decided to create a blog to remember everything that happened during our year and a half of planning this wedding. So far, things have been going pretty smoothly. On January 17th, we visited our dream location, the Braselton-Stover House in Braselton, GA. The tour was so much fun and we were extremely impressed. As of right now, that is where we are planning on having it. It will be an evening wedding and an outside wedding with the reception held in their ballroom.

As far as a date goes, we are still debating. Our two options at this point are May 21, 2o11 (my pick) or June 18, 2011. Taylor (my younger brother) will be graduating from high school in June of 2011 so we're trying to get information from his school about dates of senior activities. We're praying that he doesn't have anything the weekend of May 21st.

We have pretty much decided on a videographer. On January 29th, I met with Melody Hendricks, an amazing photographer located in Athens, GA. I was immediately in love with her photos and her work. Once we have a for-sure date and location, we are planning on booking her.

I have talked to Heather Lawson and Amanda Winkler about doing my hair and my bridesmaids hair. Stefannie Wilkes is going to do our makeup!

As for wedding party, I've asked all of my bridesmaids and all of them have agreed. Bethany Ullrich will be my maid-of-honor. My bridesmaids are Jackie Richardson, Katelyn Hebert, Nicole Hiett (soon-to-be Nicole Hancock), Jessica Ortiz Loggins and Michelle Herring. John Hoyt has chosen most of his but still hasn't asked them all yet.

John Hoyt, his family, and I went to Pennsylvania last weekend (the first weekend in February) to visit my family and discuss wedding. There we decided on a budget, a guest list, and talked more about the date. My mom, Janie (John Hoyt's mom), and I went dress shopping for a few hours, and found a few that I definitely fell in love with. Mom is supposed to come down during the first weekend in March to help me shop some more.

We have decided on colors and flowers as well. We are going to have marine blue as our main color. The bridesmaids will be wearing short dresses, but they will be able to choose their dress, just so long as it is marine blue. Our accent colors are white and apple green. We are going to have blue hydrangeas and some accent flowers as the bouquets.

We've talked about catering, but have not made any final decisions yet.

Today, I spent some time looking at videographers. It's difficult because they are so expensive, and I really didn't plan for a highly priced videographer. I've made some progress though. I now know what I want and what I don't want and hopefully that will be resolved soon as well.

As of right now, that is all that I've done so far. It has really been a lot of fun so far and I can't wait to keep planning. More importantly, I can't wait to marry the Man of my dreams next summer!