Wedding Weekend in Asheville

October 29, 2015October 28, 2015 | cheriarmour

Honestly, middle of the week last week, I thought I wasn’t going to make it to the weekend.

Tuesday evening, I was at work, and attempting a quick dinner. It was one of those evenings when I couldn’t seem to get a second to myself at work, and I got a call over the walkie for like the 700th time. I pushed myself back from my desk, maybe a little too hard, and my laptop cord got caught in the wheels of my desk chair. Before I realized what was happening, the computer crashed to the floor, and I knew it was bad.

I screamed a word that is not considered appropriate to God-fearing people, and the computer worked for about 20 more minutes before it completely crapped out. I immediately contacted IT, but was pretty computerless for the better part of two days, save for an old laptop I was able to dig out of a drawer at work.

So after that, I cried to my husband that I did think I could make a wedding we were planning to attend with the pile of emails that were sure to await me.

But, before long, and with me making a trip or two back to our corporate headquarters to drop off my laptop and beg our IT specialist for mercy, I had a fix – the fall destroyed the hard drive, and sweet Jim replaced it for me. Thankfully, Google Chrome saved a lot of the bookmarks I needed for work, and all was not completely lost, and after a few meltdowns, I was comfy to head to the wedding of Kim and Nate on Saturday.

Wedding Weekend!

So, this time on our trip to Asheville, instead of getting a hotel, we did an Air BnB. Because we left early enough, we had time to get into the place, a cute basement apartment hanging off the side of a mountain, and I had time to go for a short run while Austin took a little nap. By the time I got back, he showered, and I was in full swing, getting my hair pinned up before I hopped into the shower to make my face look decent.

**Side note** I once read something that Jamie Chung said, something along the lines of the fact that her pre-pretty dress routine is to run, and that always stuck with me. So before a fancy event, before getting into a dress, I like to go for a run as a little routine for myself!

Rentallll! Funny enough, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be crazy about this one – the inner part of the dress was just tight enough around my getting-bigger butt, and I wasn’t sure if I would look like the dress was riding up. But I think it turned out perfectly!

Adele, pictured here, also rented the runway. She and a friend actually picked this dress out for me when I found myself getting overwhelmed by the options.

Not pictured: this rad cape I got since the ceremony was outside and just a little bit chilly. But it was awesome. and really high fashion. If you saw me in it, you might even think I was a fancy classy lady!

So the wedding of Kim and Nate was really fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed the break. The wine was flowing, and I really enjoyed dancing with friends, as well as this cute little girl we met on the dance floor.

The next day, after I woke up really early and took Aleve and vitamins before the storm hit (praise you Lord for that insight), and prepped to push off and hit brunch with some folks from the wedding, as well as an old friend from Elon.

We were missing part of our crew, and the mystery was solved when Adele told us that they got a text at like 3am from some of the boys, telling us they’d just gotten back and they weren’t going to make it back. Oh well!

After we gobbled up brunch, I sort of rudely invited myself to join Wayne (Elon bud) on his quest to find his sister’s booth at a local flea market.

Can we talk about this flea market for a second? K. Tiny plants. Vintage clothing. Someone told me I had a nice voice. Like speaking wise. Which is hysterical because when I speak I sound like Hilary Banks, but that’s beside the point. I find some old silverware, which is like ME THING, and got to walk around drinking alcohol next to the French Broad River.

And then…

WE MET THIS TINY CAT AND THEN WE PUT IT IN A MUG.

I’m not really in the market for any more pets because we’re psychotic and already have like two too many, but don’t let that fool you. I briefly considered stealing this kitten and raising him as my own.

Enough about me…what did you do this weekend?

Blest Studios

March 19, 2015March 18, 2015 | cheriarmour

This has absolutely 0 to do with running, my insatiable appetite for sweets or reality television, or my job (that I’m obsessed with). But I’ll be absolutely damned if I didn’t share this with you.

I’m 6 months into my marriage and I’m madly, madly in love with my husband, and In love with being married. It’s a blast having my partner here. And at least daily, I get the chance to relive our wedding day because of the prints I had made of our wedding photos, plastered over ever surface in my office.

I will not spoil the fun for you and post the photos here. Instead, let me tell you a bit about our photographer and his team that documented our day. Then I’m gonna send you to Cole’s blog to check out the photos.

Austin and I weren’t going to do engagement photos. When we got engaged, we had a lot going on. My mother was sick, my grandmother died shortly after we got engaged which wrecked me, and as a result, engagement photos were something I felt like I wouldn’t have time to do. But after I saw a beautiful couple I went to school with who’d gotten their engagement photos done, I decided, last-minute, to schedule us a session which occurred about one month before we nupped it up. Oops. Cole was a good sport, and came and met us in the park where we got engaged to snap some gorgeous pictures.

Here they are. Make sure you scroll all the way through and check out the photos of us dancing in the park.

Now, these wedding photos. I don’t have many words, which is pretty shocking because ya girl always has words, but all I can say is that I look through these photos at least once a week, and relive our wedding day, which still, to this day, feels like a perfect dream.

Here are the wedding photos.

No words. Except ::sigh::. Which isn’t a word.

And…if you’re looking for a photog? I’d suggest Blest. Period.

What’s your favorite photo that’s ever been taken of you?

Wedding Weekend!

December 8, 2014December 7, 2014 | cheriarmour

Not mine of course. I tied the knot with my honey-bear in July. But Deb, who sort of eloped in June of this year, celebrated her wedding with a reception in Charlotte.

A few things about it.

I made it through the weekend. If you’ll remember from my ranty post last week, I was completely overwhelmed, and not 100% sure that I was going to be able to successfully make it through the weekend.

I made it, and we all survived. As far as my brother’s hair, I borrowed some clippers from a friend and managed to cut his and Austin’s hair before the wedding popped off. This really provides me little to no insight as to why the girl from the barber shop could not figure out how to cut black hair, because with relatively little experience, I was able to give him a decent haircut. It really wasn’t so challenging. I learned my lesson, and will never, ever, EVER take my brother to a place that can’t handle black hair because everyone is making fun of me for screwing my brother’s hair up.

But moving right along, Deb held her wedding at the Levine Museum of the New South on Saturday. Instead of doing some sort of ceremony or something, we started the reception out with a short cocktail hour, and then Deb and Luigi came down the staircase for an entrance. They danced their first dance to Luther Vandross’ cover of Knocks Me Off My Feet, which was really cute and fun because Stevie Wonder was a focal point for the music at my wedding as well, so my father trained us well.

We ate, danced, and after the wedding is when the real fun began. The wedding itself was awesomely fun, by the way 🙂 We headed to Ri Ra, an Irish pub downtown, where my cousin forced, yes forced me to drink shots against my will. Absolutely needless to say, I will be taking a little breaky from the drank this week as I let my liver heal.

So one really cool thing?

I didn’t have a dress, and I’ve been on a budget. So for Deb’s wedding, I tried out Rent the Runway, something I’d heard of, but never had the guts to try. So essentially, I rented a $700 Badgley Mischka and earring for $70. Dress turned out to be a hit, so I may do the same for a few holiday parties.

It’s kinda cool just shipping it back, and not having to worry about getting stuck with a dress that I won’t be wearing again.

Anyhoo, what did you do this weekend?

How involved should you be in your engagement ring process?

October 29, 2014October 28, 2014 | cheriarmour

Were you like me growing up?

After seeing proposals as a kid on telly and stuff, I always assumed that the entire process of getting engaged was a giant surprise.

Whenever I would see those jumbotron proposals, I would always think to myself, “What if she says no,” not realizing until a teacher told me later, that a proposal, and an engagement, generally, were discussed at length prior to it happening.

So all that said, when I got into a relationship, the sort where I felt like I could share my life with this person, I had no idea how we were supposed to go about choosing a ring.

Wasn’t I supposed to be surprised?

DID I want to be surprised?

And then I thought about it.

I love Austin so deeply. However, throughout the course of our nearly four-year courtship, it became apparent that he might need some help picking out the jewelry that would symbolize the start of our relationship together.

For one, he was colorblind. When colors, especially those on the same note, were mashed together, he couldn’t tell the difference, which I learned after we spent a weekend painting together.

For two, he was a straight male engineer. Engineers are notoriously no-frills. He likes his hair buzzed. He doesn’t like fancy clothes. And fashion isn’t one of his main concerns. And knowing that, I still decided to try the whole “going to pick out a genre of ring, and letting my man decide” thing.

Nope.

My husband didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what was a pretty metal. He didn’t understand why I liked the stone in a certain shape.

So off to the jeweler we went.

We went to a custom jeweler in 5-Points who sat down with both of us. Austin gave him his budget on the DL, and I gave him what I wanted, after I figured out what I wanted. The day Austin got down on his knee, I was surprised, happy, and I think Austin was happy with my answer 🙂

So to answer the original question?

It’s really a matter of individual preference. But for me? I liked having my hand in the design process.

What do you think? How involved will you (were you) in the engagement ring process?

Engagement anxiety.

October 22, 2014October 21, 2014 | cheriarmour

Being married is my favorite thing ever. Everyone keeps asking me what I think about being married, and honestly, it has been beyond amazing. I felt, a few days ago, for one of the first times, that we’re settling into marriage, which is a beautiful thing. It was nice to look out of the window a few days ago, see the shed that my husband painted, and kind of smile and think, “we’re building something together!” And I know, marriage isn’t all la la la kittens and baby turtles, but in the time that it is, I’m relishing the time and drinking it all in.

We got married at a pretty standard age I think, in fact, I’m a little older than some of my friends were getting married. But, I think I’m starting to get into the season of my life where I’m seeing a ton of weddings and a ton of engagements, and I’m so happy for folks. I am so pumped. But I wonder if any of these brides have experienced any of the engagement anxiety that comes with being engaged.

The reason this came up? A few days ago, I ran into a friend who was brand, brand, newly engaged. I spotted her hand sparkling and asked her about it. She raised her arm, almost zombie-like, and showed me.

“Oh my gosh,” I said! “When did you guys get engaged???!”

“Last night,” she quietly drawled.

She didn’t seem sad. But she didn’t seem happy. If anything, she seemed a little…stunned?

And I think that’s perfectly normal. You’ve just made the pre-commitment to commit to someone for the rest of your life. That said, it’s normal to feel:

Stupid happy.
Like a grown-up. You might not feel like a grown up, because grown ups, in your mind, are old and go to bed early. And they never drink too much. And all of a sudden, you’ve done something that really old grown people do. And you might start to feel old.
A little stunned.
Tired. You’re showing off your hand, you’ve recounted your proposal story about 400 times, and people keep asking when the date is, when you’ve only been engaged for like a week. It’s a lot of attention. I thought I liked attention before we got married. Woof, that was a lot.

I can’t speak for the men, but I’m fairly certain they too go through the “oh, shit” phase before it passes and you’re married to your best bud. So remember, my engaged friends, it’s okay to have some or all of the above feelings for a few weeks after engagement.

What was one big life change that had you stunned for a day or two?

The invite list.

October 8, 2014October 7, 2014 | cheriarmour

We’re coming up on over a month of being married, and as I’ve stated again and again, being married is amazing. It’s like before when we were dating, but even better.

On Thursday night last week, our wedding photos, courtesy of Blest photography came in the mail, and I’ve spent the last few days looking through 900 amazing photographs again and again. I’m debating how to share this with you all, if at all, but here’s a little taste for you guys, one of my favorite photos of the day.

At this moment, Cole had just asked us if we minded playing around in the tobacco for a while. Of course we didn’t, and Austin helped me pick up my dress and sort of frolic in the field.

But I’m getting distracted.

Let’s talk invites.

So I’ve hopped around the wedding thing a lot, trying to give you the best info. But since I’ve just gone through it and my sister is going through it (she’s doing a wedding reception with her husband in December), and it’s something that is the source of a lot of grief.

Who the heck do you invite to your wedding? Who don’ t you invite? How do you keep from insulting folks?

This is something we went through – I have a large family, and my parents got married in the 80s, when a lot of times, your parents would invite whomever they wanted, and you, the couple-to-wed, has very little say in who is invited.

Things have changed since then, so here are a few rules when you’re trying to figure out who you invite.

Immediate family. Duh.
Friends. Invite folks that you would invite to your housewarming. Do not invite frenemies. You don’t need negativity on your day.
Work people. For my small, more intimate job at Fleet Feet, I invited everyone, as we often invite each other to big life events. At my new job, I invited no one, and my husband invited folks that were on his leadership team at work.
Family/your parents’ friends. This one got a little tricky for us. We wanted to invite everyone our parents had ever met, but it simply wasn’t possibly. Our venue would only seat 140, and we really wanted to make sure we got everyone in that we could. We invited family friends that we’d grown up with, and Austin’s mom invited a few of the same.

The tricky thing when going through this list is figuring out how you can keep from insulting folks when you don’t invite them to your wedding.

Here’s your answer.

Who cares? It’s you/your partner’s day. And real acquaintances who care for you will understand that you like them okay, but not necessarily enough to spend over $100 for them to eat up all your food and drink all your liquor.

How do you decide who gets invited to big events?

If I had to plan my wedding again…

September 24, 2014September 23, 2014 | cheriarmour

So, it’s wedding Wednesday, which we haven’t done in a lot of weeks, but you all will deal because I got married and bought a house in the span of the last 30 days.

Helene blogged an excellent post about if she had to plan her wedding again. Yesterday is our one-month anniversary, and quite honestly, I’m still floating on the clouds, however, I thought the post was really interesting, and really pertinent, as it seems like every single person on my Facebook feed is engaged – so here it is…

If I had to plan my wedding again….

First off, this is really really hard, because I honestly feel like the day was perfect. But it was more because of the company I think. Being with my friends, being with my husband, getting pictures taken, and dancing all night left very little to want for. But as far as planning goes?

I would have spread the planning out a little bit more. When we got engaged, I was really really overwhelmed. My grandmother died immediately following our engagement, and I really didn’t get into planning until months before the big day. Everything got done, but it made that time right before feel a little crunched in the weeks before.
Knowing how much it costs, I would have saved a little more leading up. You think you have all the costs together. But I absolutely guarantee, future brides, you will bleed money in the month or so before your wedding. Even if your family is paying for it all, you’ll need to buy this or that at Michael’s before. You’ll forget that there are favors to be purchased, and jars to be crafted. Trust me on this one.
I would have delegated a little bit more, sooner. My friends were absolutely incredible. One bridesmaid registered me at Target and BBB. One ran to Michael’s for chalk the morning of. My brother put together some gifts for some of the folks for me. But I wish I had realized just a little bit sooner that it is okay to ask friends for help. A lot of times, they want to help, and would gladly do whatever it is you want to. They have no stake in this. They don’t care if you want pink flowers and yellow walls with kites hanging off of them (just an example, and not at all indicative of what my gorgeous day was about). But they will do what you tell them and be happy to do it. <-to be fair to this point, I also hate to relinquish creative control to anyone, so the delegation I did was hard, but worth it 🙂

And that’s really it. My wedding was such a gorgeous celebration, I have very little to say about the day of. But leading up, there were definitely things I could have done to reduce my stress level.

What would you have done/what are you doing to streamline your wedding planning process?

Wedding Wednesday: The Engagement Sessions

September 3, 2014September 2, 2014 | cheriarmour

It’s really fun to do these Wedding Wednesday posts now that I’m married, and I’m not taking any time away from doing any wedding things. Yes, I could be writing some more thank-you notes at this precise second, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

So I have a confession to make. A big, huge, horrible confession. A confession that I’m ashamed to make. But…years and years ago, I asked myself as I looked at a friend’s engagement photos, I thought to myself – “What is the point of engagement photos?”

Even after we were engaged, I wasn’t necessarily sure what the point was of getting these photos done.

Couldn’t we just save the money, skip the photos, create a really cute save-the-date without our faces being plastered all over them? And I suppose we could have…until we saw the engagement photos of this gorgeous couple I went to school with. The engagement photos literally took your breath away, and suddenly, as we were gathering a down payment on the house that would be our first home together as a married couple, I envisioned a home with zero pictures of us when we were young and freshly-engaged. And I couldn’t do it.

So a year after we were engaged, I contacted the gentleman that I knew wanted to do our photos, and explained our weird situation to him. He seemed open to the idea of it, even a year after our engagement, and he agreed, with all the grace that a human being could have with a silly couple like us.

And once we spent the afternoon with Cole of Blest, it became extremely clear why engagement photos were important, perhaps even necessary, when you’re getting married.

Luckily, I knew Cole, and Blest Studios long before I was engaged, and I knew that the quality of his work was head and shoulders above what I’d seen from other photographers. However, taking this photos really got me comfortable in doing photos with my husband. You might think you’re really comfortable with someone – until you have to take photos of you making out and groping your husband on camera. It really, really gets you comfy with each other.
Taking these photos gets you comfy with your photog. Especially in cases when you don’t know your photog or his or her work, this can be really important. I mean, you don’t want someone to eff up your memories, right? If it takes some money for you to find out that you don’t jive at all with your photographer, why not, right?
They serve as memories of an incredible times with your spouse. We didn’t take the photos right after we got engaged, however, even after waiting a year, the pics, even taken a month-and-a-half ago, remind me of a beautiful time, where we met up in a park and met up with a friend to take some photos. I remember being nervous, I remember showing Cole the spot we got engaged at, and I remember feeling so close to Austin as our story seemed to unfold for Cole. I won’t be forgetting that anytime soon.
You know what you’re gonna be getting for your wedding. Direction, organization, light, editing. We got the good stuff – and we knew that. And you will know that with engagement photos.

I can admit when I’m being kinda rude, and kind of judgey. Engagement photos? Worth it.

Check out Blest Studios, whether you’re engaged, pregs, celebrating an anniversary, or if you just want some gorge photos of yourself.

Annnnd they’re not paying me to say this. I mean, it would be cool if they were. And I’m opening the floor now for some payment 🙂 but Blest is just that good.

Did you do engagement/pregnancy/anniversary photos?

I witnessed a fantasy draft.

August 31, 2014 | cheriarmour

So wayyyy back when we were looking at wedding venues (it feels forever ago now,) we almost got married on the 6th of September.

I say almost because Austin took one look at that date, and said something along the lines of “Babe, we can’t get married then because I might miss my fantasy draft!”

I was dumbfounded – NFL is not really my thing, and I had so much fun with this wedding, I literally thought he was kidding when he said he couldn’t have it then. Then I realized how serious it was when a friend of ours got married on a Sunday mid-September. Austin begged for me to see if I could get the televisions at the venue turned on (absolutely not), and then left the wedding with like a millions guys in tow to find a television to watch the game.

Well, I witnessed a fantasy draft on Friday night, and it was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. 12 men sat around at a table. They hung up this…paper poster thingie on the wall and they had printed stickers of all the players. They each brought in $50 for the pot. And then, for three hours, three hours, they went around the table, drafting players, while I looked on in astonishment. I have never seen 12 men so attentive and focused on anything in my entire life – and it was incredible.

Apparently, this fantasy thing is kind of a big deal?

Engagement Photos

So, this a little bit of a right turn, but instead of being a normal couple, we waited over a year after our engagement, just weeks before the wedding, to do our engagement photos. I’ll talk more about that on Wedding Wednesday, because the entire process of doing the engagement shoot was really interesting and fun. But originally, we weren’t going to do the whole engagement shoot thing, but I got a little sad when I saw how beautiful a friend’s turned out and blah blah blah you get it.

So anyhoo, one of the best gifts I received on our wedding day that I forgot that I was going to get was a beautiful jump drive with ALL of our engagement photos on it – and lucky day – I’ll share a couple of them with you!

Obviously, I have well over 100 photos, and I will gladly share them with you via email if you’re curious, but these were my faves!

Happy Labor day, beautiful people, and stay safe!

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