Our big day is here (august 2, 2008)

Our big day is here!!!
I stayed up on Friday night before the wedding writing a letter to Michael that would be delivered to him on the day of our wedding. Once I finished the letter, it was easy for me to fall asleep! I think I was just so exhausted--all the planning and stressing---I was getting married!!!!! I got a great night of sleep and was rested for the big day. My day started off at the hair salon with my bridesmaids--we went in shifts since it was a small salon. Unfortunately, the day became a little rushed at the salon--probably my 1 regret of the day--i wish we had started earlier in the morning at the salon--as it was 8:30am was not early enough--even though our wedding was at 4:30 in the afternoon. But all in all, we made it and everything turned out just fine :)
My grandmother got her hair done too :)

Melissa and Lara at the salon (they were a part of the first shift of appointments--such troopers)

Lindsey and Christie getting their hair done

Lilly and Chloe getting their hair set

Jennie, Rachel, Lesli, and Me getting magazine inspiration :)

Getting my hair and makeup done---the royal treatment :)

Our ride to the church...

Goin to the chapel.... :)


The boys getting ready

The men have arrived at the church


The boys getting a quick bite to eat before putting on their tuxes.


Our adorable ring bearer Cavan. He had so much fun hanging out with the big boys :)


A few pictures of our wedding

Lara and me


some of the church decor


My family and me right before going down the aisle


Making my way down the aisle


Our beautiful aisle runner


My cousins (Lauren and Ally) --the program and guest book attendants


My bridesmaids and me


MARRIED!


After the wedding in the holding room right before we took pictures


The reception:
A shot of the reception ballroom


Best man and Maid of honor introduction


Our first dance - "Signed Sealed Delivered"


Grooms Cake - GO VOLS!


Our wedding cake - inspired by a cake in the Martha Stewart Weddings book


Daddy/Daughter dance


Polish apron dance--This was such a fun time at our reception. It is sort of like the dollar dance you see done at some weddings but this is a polish family tradition.


Candy buffet



Our parents


Rose Petal exit


Our getaway car


For more pictures, be sure to check out our wedding album online:

Enjoy!!!

A Chattanooga Wedding!

We were so excited for the big day! Here are some pictures of the Thursday and Friday before the wedding!

We just so happened to arrive at the hotel at the same time as one of my childhood best friends, Lindsey (she was one of my bridesmaids too) and the junior bridesmaid, flower girl, and ring bearer (my 3rd grade teacher's children). Here is a picture of us all. Can you believe the pretty blonde was my 3rd grade teacher--and she has 4 children!!!??? She is one amazing lady and has meant so much to me in my life--it was only fitting that her family was apart of my wedding :)


Here is a picture of the beautiful hotel lobby.


We got right to work on Thursday night. Luckily, the hotel let us have a room for storage :) (thank you wedding planner Pam!)
We got the candy into the jars, took the glad press n seal off the escort card display and put together the table numbers. We also gave the welcome bags to the front desk to hand out to all of our guests!!! Mom and Dad kept my wedding dress in their hotel room. They also had a steamer to make sure we could steam out any wrinkles from travel--and also so the bridesmaids could get wrinkles out of their dresses too.






This is Marsha (my sister) and me on thursday night before the wedding. Actually, Michael took me on a date that night in downtown Chattanooga. It was our last date night before we got married :)


I also spent most of thursday afternoon and evening greeting some of our guests.
Here are my Uncle Rob and Aunt Gloria. Aunt Gloria is actually an ordained minister and will be a part of our wedding ceremony.


A family friend of Michael's wanted to host my Bridesmaid Luncheon. She hosted it at a tea room in Chattanooga and she thought of everything. The food was delicious and she had a charm cake for us too as well as little favors for everyone. Michael's mom even had favors for us all too.
The tea room

My maids and me

The KDs

The charm cake

Getting our charms


While the girls were all at the bridesmaids luncheon, Michael and his groomsmen and some of the men in the family went on a golf outing.


The rehearsal
Lara and me getting ready

Jay and John rolling out the runner

Michael and me at the altar

Junior Bridesmaid, Flower Girl, Ring Bearer, and me

The men


And later that night, the rehearsal dinner was held at the Walden Club in downtown Chattanooga. This club is on top of a bank building in Chattanooga and has a panoramic view of Chattanooga--its soo beautiful. It was the perfect location for the dinner :) Michael's parents did such a great job planning this special evening. They even had personalized M&Ms (for Michael and Meredith) made up for everyone to take home as a favor---they even had our picture on the M&Ms. So cute!!!

My mom's side of the family


Our good friends Adam and Julie with Michael


The delicious buffet


We presented all of our attendants with gifts at the rehearsal dinner. We appreciate each of them so much. We have such wonderful friends and family!


A picture of the M&M's Michael's parents had for everyone for favors at the dinner :)


Stay tuned for pictures of our big day!

I'm Back!

Wow! It's been a long hiatus, but I'm back now. I have so much to update you all on. I'm married now! YAY!!!! It was such a wonderful day! We so much enjoy married life....but before I get into all of that, let's take a step back. Take a look at the weeks before the wedding. All of the last minute things were being wrapped up, my parents came in for the week before the wedding, and we had a pre-wedding BBQ for the groomsmen (so they could get their tuxes too). Here are some pictures leading up to our big day!

Here are a couple of pictures of the out of town welcome bags for the hotel to distribute. Michael's mother helped out quite a bit since she is a Chattanooga guru! We had some things that Chattanooga was notorius for as well as a few of our favorite things.
Skittles (packaged in Chattanooga and also we love them!)
Cheerwine (our FAVORITE and exclusive to the south)
FIJI water (the BEST bottled water)
Power T sugar cookies (because we LOVE UT football and that's where we met too!)
Moon Pies (made in Chattanooga)
Planter peanuts (packaged in Chattanooga)
Wrigley's gum (packaged in Chattanooga)
Chattanooga souvenir magnet
coupons to Krystal (perfect for late night snacking--and also headquartered in Chattabooga)
coupons to tourist attractions and restaurants in Chattanooga

We made booklets that served as a guide to Chattanooga including where to go for every meal.




Michael and I also had hand-written notes in each of the out of town bags for our guests welcoming them to our wedding and thanking them for what a special place they had in our lives.....it was a more last minute idea and became stressful as we got down to the wire. Michael's mother had notecards made of the Tivoli Theatre that had the marquee personalized with Meredith and Michael's Wedding. They were sooo cute--we just had to do something with them!!!


Here are the candy buffet vases. We had to hand wash each of them--in addition to the jars for the guests to take the candy home in. It took a while, but it was totally worth it. Our guests LOVED the candy buffet!


Here is the escort card display. We had to get this ready before making our way to Chattanooga to ensure that every card would fit. We had some trouble but somehow we managed. We wrapped it up in Glad Press 'N Seal to make sure the cards didn't fall off in transport. I think it turned out really great. Our calligrapher wrote all of the names and the ladies at our local scrapbook store helped me figure out how to make it all how we wanted it.


Time to go to Chattanooga! (I really wish we had pictures of all of our cars packed down with wedding stuff) In the weeks leading up to the wedding, we had put a large table in our entryway and started gathering everything that we needed to bring to Chattanooga. We had my Rav4, my parents in their Avalon, my sister's Santa Fe, and Michael and his best man loaded Max's car down too. We also had my cousin and Adam and Julie bring things too. It was definitely a group effort and we couldnt have made it without them :)

RSVPs

The RSVPs for the most part are in....they were due on July 1st--and needless to say we were missing quite a few. Our wedding planner urged us to go ahead and call guests even a couple of days before the "deadline."
Mom and Dad have been handling all of the RSVPs and the seating chart--thank goodness. Michael and I got the chance 1 day to go and "check the mail" while we were home for the Virginia shower....you know it sounds silly, but it is pretty exciting getting RSVPs in the mail....so naturally I had to get a picture of the moment :)

(Michael was less than thrilled) hahaha




Now, now thats better

Recipe shower in Virginia

Here are some pictures from an amazing shower we had in VA that a couple of my mom's friends threw for us Father's Day weekend. We had a great mix of family and friends in attendance. We had a lot of fun and it was so great for a lot of them to finally meet Michael--yes, he came to the shower too :) My dad was there too, but funny enough he volunteered to take the gifts as we opened them to the car and so he wasn't seen much. He CLAIMS he was there to see me open up each gift--but Mom and I aren't too sure about that :)


Practicing cutting the cake for our wedding day :)




Michael and me with the wonderful shower hostesses ("Miss Ginnie" and "Miss Paula")












Some of the many AMAZING gifts we received!!



The yummy spread of food :) Miss Ginnie even matched the miniature roses (from her garden) that were in the center of the cake to colors that reminded her of different aspects of the wedding :)



My sister and me with 2 of our cousins (Ally and Lauren). They will be attendants in the wedding :)


Some of our wonderful friends and family that were there :)

Bachelorette Party :)

Yes, I promise I am alive. WOW!!! what a busy month. I apologize for the hiatus.

My bridesmaids threw me a FABULOUS bachelorette party in Buckhead GA! We stayed at the beautiful Ritz Carlton --right across the street from Lennox mall! It was soooo much fun. Here are some pictures from the weekend!!!


MY FUN ACCESSORIES THAT MY SISTER PICKED OUT FOR ME TO WEAR FOR THE EVENING :)





YEP, no doubt about it. I had a BLAST!!!!





And in case you couldn't tell, this picture says it all--IT WAS HOTTT!!! Typical summer heat of atlanta I suppose :)




My sister made us all fun goodie bags and we were all sporting the bling rings we each got :)




Here is me and my sister. She wasnt in many of the pictures because she was the photographer for the weekend :) Thank you Marsha for taking GREAT pictures!!!!



Thank you so much girls for an AMAZING weekend!!! I was thrilled to be able to spend time with each of you!!!!

FINALLY....the recipe for those strawberry flowers :)

WOAH! So busy!! (and surprisingly not too badly with wedding stuff) :)

Since the ivites have been sent, Mom and Dad have received a steady flow of response cards. :) VERY exciting. Michael and I head to Northern VA (my home) for the weekend for a shower. We are so excited :)
I had my bachelorette party this past weekend and I had a BLAST! I will blog about it as soon as my bmaids send me more pictures that they took :)

*****

Many have asked....sorry it has taken so long. These strawberries are from the AROUND THE CLOCK shower that my mom and I hosted for one of my best friends. Enjoy!



Strawberry flowers with coconut cream
(Makes 2 ¾ cups)

1 (3.4 oz) package coconut cream instant pudding mix
¾ c sour cream
¼ c heavy whipping cream
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
¾ c confectioners’ sugar
1 t coconut extract
1 qt strawberries, washed and dried
Garnish: toasted coconut

In a small bowl, combine pudding mix, sour cream, and cream. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well combined.
Reduce speed to low; add cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and coconut extract beating until well combined. Cover and refrigerate 30 min.
With stem side down, make 2 vertical cuts from tip to ¼ inch from stem end of strawberry. Gently spread apart to form 4 petals. Spoon or pipe coconut filling into each strawberry. Garnish with toasted coconut if desired.


Have a great day!!

Monogram Shower!

What a fun shower this was!!! Some of my bridesmaids decided to throw me a shower in Knoxville. The theme was monogram. I registered for a lot of monogrammed items and I am OBSESSED with the new monogram!!! It was not required to bring a monogrammed gift but many people did. We got a good variety of gifts :)




I have the BEST friends!!! Everything was so cute!! (from the MAGPIES cake, heart shaped ice cubes, yummy food, cute invitations, fun games to the cute favors) Enjoy the pictures!!! There were a few guests that left before we got the chance to take their picture.

Entering the WEDDING WAR ZONE....enter if you dare

Thats what we have been calling the media room downstairs in my basement.....these pictures do not even do it justice. All of the invitations were sprawled out on the floor in box lids....the jars for the favors, hundreds of strips of ribbon, wedding gifts, etc.....It was a nightmare down there for my fiance who is a neat freak--and somehow he could not see the organized chaos that existed down there...--it was just chaos to him. These pictures were taken actually before the invitations came in and aftr Mom and I had picked up the clutter--





Luckily, the invitations were sent on Tuesday and the jars have ribbons tied on top and a label in the bottom....so we were able to clean it up a bit.

Here are some pictures of the wedding invitations and the calligraphy! (and yes, in case you are wondering, we did send ourselves an invitation in the mail) :)







I have so many DIY projects for the wedding I have been working on for the past few months.

ESCORT CARD DISPLAY --that i blogged about a few months ago
My cousin's wife, Ashley, came over with her school's diecut machine and I had ordered a diecut shape of a gift tag to use in our escort card pockets. Its kind of a confusing project.....
Each family will receive a "pocket"/envelope--names will be written on these pockets. Inside the pocket will have the gift tag shaped cardstock. One that has the table number assigned to them. Then, each individual will have their own gift tag that has a "C" or a "B" (i.e. chicken or beef). Thats how the servers will know who has which entree.
Ashley cut out SOOO MANY gift tags with her diecut machine. WHAT A HUGE HELP!!!
I had Kinkos cut strips of paper which i then turned into "pockets" with a circle punch to cut a semi-circle in the center and then used this heavy duty adhesive to stick the edges to make the pocket. This makes it look similar to a library pocket.







Candy buffet with small squatty mason jars for the guests to fill up and take home.





We have had the rubber gloves out while we have been sorting candy by color for the candy buffet so that it goes with the wedding colors....we have all of the vases downstairs that we have been hand washing and measuring how much candy will fit. Mom ordered the last of the candy and it should be arriving on my doorstep sometime this weekend or beginning of next week. YAY!!




Candle wax dripping protectors: You know those green and wite circles that fit around those small congregational candles (the candles we are giving each of our guests during the unity candle) to prevent the candle wax from dripping all over you? Well, I wanted to make them coordinate with the wedding collors so I decided to make some myself with peach colored cardstock/scrapbook paper! Luckily I found a large circle punch at the scrapbook store. Then we got an extended reach hold punch to punch a small circle in the center and then used scissors to cut and "X" through the center to feed the candle through. THEY ARE DONE!!!!! Thank goodness....Mom punched the large circles, Ashley helped me out with the center circle punch, and my sister helped me cut the "X" in each one.




Next up, the menus. We are having our AMAZING calligrapher write up our menu and then we will photocopy it onto some shimmer paper and I have a corner punch to make it fancy and also some small rhinestones to glue 1 or 2 at the top in part of our wedding "logo" header.

As for our wedding gifts, well, I don't have the room to "display" the gifts as they used to traditionally do. I have been breaking the rules a bit and putting the gifts away and actually start using some of the gifts. The only ones we haven't used or put away are the monogrammed ones.

Our cocktail napkins arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago! They turned out great and are a really pretty peach color.



ENJOY!!!

Another Chattanooga Shower

We had a shower mother's day weekend in Chattanooga. (I realize I am a little behind in blogging this one) We have been referring to this shower as the Cornerstone shower. Michael's parents' sunday school class (the Cornerstone class as they are commonly called) threw us this shower. The Gentry's hosted the shower at their home on the Council Fire golf course. It was so much fun.



The decor had a summer soiree flare and it was called "The First Year of Good Cheer". Guests were assigned a month of the year to theme their gift around (similar to Around the Clock, but this was months of the year). When we opened gifts we started with September (the first month after we are married) and then went through the rest of the year and ended with August. We got a lot fo really cute things.






Here is a picture of the awesome cake they had. In case you didn't already know, I am obsessed with our new monogram....so the fact they had a monogrammed cake was PERFECT!!!!!



We got a lot of fun gifts :)

BEST PHONE CALL EVER!

I just got a phone call a couple of hours ago.....MY WEDDING DRESS IS IN!!! (about a month early!) I am so psyched!!!! It is in Virginia--so I will have to wait until June 14th for my first fitting! BUT AT LEAST IT IS HERE!!! I'm so excited!!! Things are coming together so wonderfully!

The calligrapher finished our invitations in 7 days! UNBELIEVABLE!!! Seriously, she is amazing!! Her name is Debi-Lyn. She is GREAT! Drop a comment if you are looking for a good calligrapher and I will give you her contact info :)

Tonight, Michael and I are hosting a invitation stuffing party!!! I am so lucky to have such great friends in the area. Julie and Adam, and Jay and Ashley are coming over for dinner and then helping with the invites....(pictures to follow)

Also, we had quite the hurdle yesterday with the invitations....It wil cost $1.17 to mail each invite. YIKES!!! The $0.59 LOVE wedding stamps won't be released until Jun 10th (too late to send the invites). So, after toying with MANY different options, we are settling for 2x $0.58 LOVE wedding stamps (that we had to order online because they were out of them at all of the knoxville post offices) and a $0.01 tiffany lamp stamp. UGGH! Oh well. I think this was the best option... And to top that off, the LOVE stamp for the response card won't be ready until June 10th too....so we have to use the flag stamps.....BOO :(

Cake tasting

Michael and I got to have our cake tasting this weekend with his parents. They were all so yummy!!! :)
Here are some pictures of the tasting...

For the wedding cake:
white cake with a vanilla mousse filling with buttercream icing

And this is what it will look like :) (I love Martha Stewart)


For the grooms cake:
We thought about chocolate but decided we wanted to be a little different than traditional. We didn't want nuts because of allergies (my own and other people who may be allergic)
We decided on an orange velvet....because we love red velvet cake but didn't want it to be red in color....the orange goes with the wedding decor a little better. :)

And this is what it will look like.....







Yeah right....that's a surprise!! You will have to wait to see it at the wedding or in pictures from the wedding :)

Cakes will be made at THE CAKE GALLERY in Chattanooga, TN

It's Official!!

I am so excited to announce that I am in the middle of a job transition. I will still be working for Scripps Networks (the LEADER in Lifestyle Media--including HGTV, DIY, GAC, Food Network, and Fine Living), but I will now be in a different department and a different office (only a 5 minute longer commute). I am VERY excited about this change. I have enjoyed working for the HGTV Media Traffic Department, but I was ready for a change. I interviewed twice 2 weeks ago and found out on Tuesday that I got the job! It was announced at work yesterday in my department--so now I can post it! :) My last day in my current job will be June 6th. So I will start the new job the following Monday (June 9th)! I will be working in the Interactive Ad Sales/Ad Sales Marketing Department. This seems to be more of how I want my career path to go so I am excited! Michael is so excited about this too! He knows I have been wanting to be more challenged at work so he is excited about this transition! :) I'll keep everyone posted on how things go!!!

Work Shower

My co-workers threw me a shower at work! It was so fun! They made some yummy food too :)


Here's my department at HGTV :)






Some fun gifts we got :)
I think I was showing my excitement for Michael when I opened the pizza stone. That was something he picked out to register for--so I knew he would be thrilled!! :)

Since my mom was in town for the week, she got to come too :)

Some of my sister's pictures from the shower

Here are a couple more pictures from Sunday's festivities:

I HIGHLY recommend the Bed and Breakfast in Chattanooga where the tea was. My mom, sister, and aunt had a blast and it was such a quaint and beautiful place to stay. If you are ever in the Chattanooga area, you should definitely check it out!!!







More pictures of gift opening....you will see a lot of that nature inspired gift-wrapping. That is from the specialty store we registered our everyday china at in Chattanooga. It is called Revival LLC and it is located downtown. They also spray perfume on this white finely shredded paper.....the gift presentation is sooo neat!!!








Enjoy!!! Have a wonderful wednesday!!! I am having my work shower today!!! So excited :)

Chattanooga Tea/Shower

Yesterday, we had a BEAUTIFUL shower hosted by a good friend of Michael's family. It was in Chattanooga at a Bed and Breakfast and it was absolutely gorgeous!

I was so glad that my mom, sister, aunt, "cousin", and both of Michael's parents could be there for the shower. There were also some good friend's of Michael's family who were there to celebrate! And, Style Diaries was there too :)

Here is a picture of our family that was there and the hostess and her family too.


Here is a picture of me, my mom and my sister.


Here is Michael's parents with us overlooking the river on the bluff.


Here is a picture of me with my cousin (Jay's) wife, Ashley! She is my "cousin"!! :)


Here is my mom and one of her sisters (my Aunt Lillian)--also Ashley's mother-in-law!


Here is a picture of us with the hostess (Rebecca) and her family. They adopted little Sarah Jane when she was a baby. She is 6 now and soooo adorable!!! :) This was the first time I had met her!!! But before Sarah Jane, Rebecca and Tyler kind of had Michael as their "adopted" son!! :)


Here is Michael with Sarah Jane...SOOOO cute!!!


Here we are with Sarah Jane!



The flowers were beautiful. The food was delicious!! The weather was gorgeous!!! We could not have asked for a more perfect day!







Opening gifts and visiting with our guests :)












And here are a few more pictures of the BEAUTIFUL view.




Taking it home :)

Shower hostess gifts....

please shed some light of some fun hostess gifts. I have a lot of mine picked out but I would love some more input. I have one in particular hostess (shower is on sunday)--nothing like the last minute--she is very difficult to shop for....she doesnt cook or entertain at her own house (the shower is at a bed and breakfast). She likes to read and write......any ideas??

Wedding gifts arrive :)

We were so excited to come home to 3 packages on my front doorstep the other day! nope, they weren't wedding planning supplies, they were wedding gifts!!!



The parents and brother of a good friend of mine, Christie (one of my bridesmaids), sent us our first 5-piece place setting of our Kate Spade fine china! It is beautiful!!! --and all in 1 piece :)

A cousin of my grandmother's sent us our first Wilton Armetele platter. My cousin and his wife LOVE theirs and highly recommended that we register for some. They are great! We cannot wait to use it.

Also, my sister called in an order from a local specialty store in Knoxville (Glass Bazaar)--where we have registered for our everyday flatware and our Christmas china. Our everyday china can also be purchased here. My sister got us a serving piece from our everyday china!!! They hand delivered it, but unfortunately we got it after someone else had gotten to it (maybe the UPS man or something) and we got it in a few peices....Luckily, Glass Bazaar is understanding and they are replacing it for us! :)

We have a triple header shower week next week!
Sunday, we have a shower/tea in Chattanooga
Wednesday, I have a shower at work
Saturday, we have a couples "The First Year of Good Cheer" shower given by Michael's parents' sunday school class :) (each couple is assigned a month of the year and they are to bring a gift suited for that month--similar to around the clock, but with months of the year instead!)

We can't wait!!! :)

Wedding Shower season continues :)

This past weekend, Michael and I threw a shower for our good friends A&J! We threw them a STOCK THE BAR shower. It was great! They mean so much to us and we wanted to do something for them. The shower was very casual. We grilled out and FINALLY made use of my backyard. We borrowed backyard furniture from my cousins and had enough seating for everyone! It was great! Thank you Jay, Ashley, and John!!!


This is a picture of me, Julie, and Alicia


This is Adam and Julie with their bow bouquet


Cutting the yummy MAGPIES cake.

They got all kinds of great stuff....



And the guys had a great time playing CORNHOLE with the boards my dad made for Michael for Christmas (my mom made the bean bags!) :)





We had tons of food and I didn't space plan for it as well as I should have....
The menu included:
hot dogs and hamburgers
chips and salsa
ruffles and french onion dip
fruit salad
strawberry spinach salad (from the WS shower--see recipe in a post below)
potato salad
cole slaw
beans (but we accidentally left them in the crock pot in the kitchen and totally forgot about them)

Drink menu:
Sangria (my specialty--recipe is from an old cooking light magazine and I love making it)
Wine
Beer
Crystal light (strawberry, orange, banana)
Sweet Tea
variety of sodas
variety of liquor

And of course, MAGEPIES for dessert! YUMM-O!

**Needless to say, we ran out of room on the buffet table and we had to move the drinks to the ground....

Around the clock bridal shower

This past weekend I went home to northern VA to co-host a shower for my best friend from home(Lara) with my mom! We had so much fun! I am the maid of honor in her wedding!! It is so exciting to be brides together!!! :) Our weddings are only a few short weeks apart from each other.

I made these yummy Strawberry flowers with coconut cream. They were delicious. I got the recipe from the SOUTHERN LADY magazine. My FMIL loves this magazine and shared some of them with me so I could find some recipes for the shower!!! :) She also got my mom a subscription ;) (I will have to post this recipe for you all at some point soon) Here I am piping the coconut cream into the strawberries.


Since the theme was AROUND THE CLOCK, it was only fitting to incorporate all things dealing with time and different times of day. We had 3 different centerpieces.

One was in the dining room where all the food was. We used my mother's silver tea tray, filled a couple of the teapots with flowers and create a little placecard explaining it was ENTERTAINING TIME--since that was one of the "times of day" that was assigned to some of the guests for their gift. We also incorporated clocks into these centerpieces. We borrowed old clocks from one of my mom's friends.



The second centerpiece illustrated DATE NIGHT. I had a fun brightly colored flower arrangement of tulips in a trifle bowl. I had a basket with a picnic tablecloth, a bottle of wine, and 2 wine glasses. Again, we had a clock and we also put the invitation with the display. This was on the kitchen island--just for decoration.



The third centerpiece was on the kitchen table--again just for decoration. It was DINNER TIME. I used my mom's kitchen aid mixer and added flowers. It turned out really cute! We also had a little plaque that said "It's five o'clock somewhere" and of course, a clock! :)


I had a really cute--and yummy--cake made for the shower in Knoxville and then I took it up to Virginia in the car! It was a HIT!!! They made a clock face on the cake and used the color scheme lime green and orange--which we tried to tie in from the invitations and flowers for the centerpieces.


Here is the beautiful bride-to-be! :)


Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of pictures, but I am hoping people will send me more to post!

These are the games we played:
"The Groom's Name" When guests arrive, each one is given a fake ring and instructed NOT to mention the groom's name during the entire shower. If someone catches another person saying his name, they (the person that said his name) must give up their ring to the "catcher". At the end of the shower, the person with the most "rings" is declared the winner and WINS a prize.
Kitchen Memory: This is the game where you have many kitchen items on a tray. You set it out for a minute or so, then cover it up and the guests have to recall what was on the tray from memory. The guest with the most correct wins a prize.
How old are you?: This one is from Martha Stewart. Assemble a dozen or so photographs of the bride, showing her at different ages. Mix them up so they're not in order. Give pencils and paper to everyone, pass the photos around, or display them someplace where everyone can see, and have guests write down their guess as to how old the bride was in the picture (she has braces, so that must have been in junior high). A prize goes to the person who gets the most ages right.
Anniversary Game: When each guest arrives, they are asked the date of their wedding anniversary. It is written down on a sheet of paper next to their name. If they are not married, their birthday can be used. The person with an anniversary (or birthday) closest to the wedding date of the bride-to-be wins the door prize.
Timer Game: Set a timer while the bride opens the gifts. When the timer goes off, the person who gave the gift the bride is currently opening wins a prize.

So you see, we tried to incorporate TIME into all of the games! The prizes were fun little gifts Mom picked up at Stein Mart--i.e. a candle, lotion, an apron, Paula Dean spices, etc. They were a hit!! :)

Lara got a lot of great stuff off of her registry and people even got really creative with their times too! It was a lot of fun!

Here is a picture of me, Lara, and my mom!