wedding planning

Blest Studios

| 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? 

How involved should you be in your engagement ring process?

| 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.

Nope.

Nope.

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?

 

The invite list.

| 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.

CHERI+AUSTIN0501 (1)
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?  

 

The rehearsal dinner.

| cheriarmour

At this point, we have been married for a little over a month, and this month has been one of the best ever.  It’s been a month of change, a month of emotions, and a month of getting to know one another better.  I absolutely love being married, and I really hope I can maintain this feeling like everything is awesome forever.

So, as far as #weddingwednesday, let’s talk the rehearsal dinner!

I wasn’t a million percent sure what the purpose of a rehearsal dinner was going into planning the wedding, very similarly to how I wasn’t sure what the purpose of engagement pictures was.  But as we planned, it became clear – despite the fact that my parents were absolutely more than willing to meet each other, because everyone was working and living their separate lives, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for our folks to meet each other and bond before the big day.

So, as we were trying to figure out how and where we would do our rehearsal dinner – someone on an online forum someone pointed out the absolutely obvious, that we should use the services at our amazing hotel, the Proximity in Greensboro, and set up our rehearsal dinner there.

And what an amazing suggestion that turned out to be!

So the Proximity is a green hotel in Greensboro, and I can’t describe to you how incredible it was to walk up to that building.  The service was spectacular, and at about 7:30pm the night before our wedding, I walked into a room that looked like a dream.

Lights, a beautifully set table, food, and all of our best family, friends, and bridal party in the same space.

There were a few tears, especially when my sister made a really sweet speech about my time spent at home for when my mother got sick last year.

But long story short, as you kind of go through some of the expenses you want to spend/don’t want to spend, a rehearsal dinner is definitely one of those things – it helps you to get your mind right and relax with friends and family before the big day.

Speaking of the tears that I shed at my rehearsal dinner, when was the last time you cried?  

 

 

If I had to plan my wedding again…

| 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…

WeddingIf 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

| 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.

image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios

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.  

  1. 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. 
  2. 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?
  3. 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. 
  4. 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?

Stress Dreams

| cheriarmour

I’ve stressed dreamed since some point during high school.

In high school, I would dream that I’d get a report card and I would have all F’s and D’s on the report.  I would dream that I was being attacked by dogs during exams.

In college, even though report cards weren’t a thing and we’d just go online to check our grades and transcripts, I would dream that I’d failed classes.

When I first started teaching fitness, I’d dream that I was late to class (huge no-no) or that Yoga music would come on for a Zumba class.

I’ve stress dreamed (dreamt?!) that I’ve shown up late for races, another thing that could screw up a race day in a heart beat.

And now, I’m stress dreaming about the wedding.  The last few nights have been horrible.  Absolutely horrible.  And it’s not because I have a single doubt in my mind about this guy…

Knife…Pictured here holding a knife he just added to our Zombie Apocalypse bag.  (Seriously, and I have not seen him beam like this or talk about any object like this since the last fancy pocket knife I bought him.)…

But it’s more because I want everyone to have a good time.  I want to look pretty.  I want everyone to have enough food.  And I want for us to have good memories of the day we got married.

So last night, I dreamt that the day was here, my shoes had not yet arrived in the mail, and that I had no one to help me the day of.

Eek!  I talked it over with a planner who happened to come into my office at work, and she eased my worries a little bit.

But what I need is to chill chill chill, have a tea, and hear about your stress dreams.

What do your stress dreams revolve around?

 

4th recap

| cheriarmour

The three-day weekend was perfect, but I’m almost at the point where three days was a little bit much for me because I laid on the couch nearly all day on Sunday, avoiding a smelly pile of laundry that needs to get done, and a dirty blender that has been in my sink all day.

As for my list of things that I wanted to do on the 4th, I think I achieved them all – the only thing I didn’t do was lay by the pool because the weather was unseasonably cool for North Carolina, and it was in the 80s all weekend – not blazing like I usually like it for pool days.

So on the fourth, we started the gorgeous day by doing NOTHING.  Well, almost.

First, I ran the Raleigh Downhill Mile with Matthew, where I found some friends.

photo 1I was able to crank out the mile fast enough so that I could cheer that little cutie on.

photo 2Matthew is a dear friend and my supervisor (for like two more days), and it was so fun to do something other than track down clients on a Friday morning at the race.  The girls raced first, so I was able to see him punch out a really impressive finish!

photo 5I cranked out a mile in 7:21.  However, my last name is not Armack, so the only proof you really have that it happened is my Garmin.  Which actually says I ran a 7:20 so HOLLA!  One of these days I will maintain a pace like this over the course of 13.1 miles.  A girl can dream, right?

photo 3

We were able to hit a local fancy coffee shop for some post-race eats.

photo 4And post race, we hit the WRAL Sand Desk that they’d set up.  How cool is that, right?

Once I got home, I laid on the couch, reading ‘The Fault in Our Stars,’ while Austin loudly chomped on peanut butter and jellies.  For hours, literally hours, Austin and I watched American Ninja Warrior while I fantasized about one day getting my upper body strong enough to fly through that course and make it up the Warped Wall.  Maybe one day…

I napped, of course.

And finally we headed out to see some friends for the 4th.

4thofJulyThe rest of the weekend was spent reading, napping, and running.  We also meet our wedding officiant, which is a fabulous woman who we seemed to click with really really well, so it feels awesome to cross another thing off the list.

On a personal front, I feel like emotionally, I’m a mess.  But I need to keep my eye on the prize, at the end of this emotional road, I get a new, wonderful husband, new pets, a new home, and a ton of time with friends and family, and that’s what’s important.

How was your 4th?

Errr….Wedding Wednesday?

| cheriarmour

I know it’s not Wednesday.  But you know what, I think you guys can deal with it and forgive me right?  It’s been sort of a crazy week at work (and I promise that once it kind of gets smoothed over I will tell you about it) but rest assured, there is a ton of stuff going on, and I’m sorry if you feel neglected.

So let’s do some catching up.

Numero uno, have you met my favorite song yet?  I heard it like a week-and-a-half ago, and it’s currently climbing the charts, like number 8 on Billboard, and a little higher up on Spotify’s list.  The song is the perfect mix of blue-eyed soul, plus a really sweet reggae feel that I haven’t heard in a while.

Behold ‘Rude’ by Magic! The group releases the album July 1st, and once that happens, I will definitely be looking for their shows. Their lead singer, in particular, is so interesting to look at, and the way he moves is really unique. I just loved discovering new loves!

Wedding Updates + a legitimate dilemma. 

  • I called last week to check on my dress, and to be completely honest, the situation with my dress is cutting it really close, and I’m not comfortable with that, but I really can’t do much about it now.
  • My wedding bands came in yesterday.  I was tempted to go pick them up so I can put them on, but is that bad luck?  Did anyone else “test” their wedding bands and wear them before they actually got married?
  • I’m not sure what I’m going to do about my last name, and I’m actually lost.  Custom would dictate that I take his.  But I like my last name.  In fact, I love my last name.  I love my family, and I love my father, and part of me might mourn the loss of that.  Do I want to keep it completely?  I don’t know.  Do I want to have part of my new husband’s name?  Yes, because we’re a family now.  But I’m not sure how to make that happen.  Please let me know if you have any cool ideas.
  • The invites are sorta ready.  I have the .tif file for them, and I am exploring some printing options for them.  If you will recall, I wanted to have them sent out by now, but things don’t work out the way you want them when you’re getting married.  Learn that, and you will have a really easy time 🙂
  • Me and Austin may have a big (non-baby) announcement soon (calm down), but I can’t tell you yet.

Okay, what’s new with you?  What should I do about my last name?