Seventh Month Mark

Woah! When did that happen? 

Luckily, I am headed to Wilmington for a week and a half to do some serious-nitty-gritty-down-to-the-wire wedding planning. 

First on my list: caterer. and finding the beach house for the week before for the wedding party! 

Good gracious I can't wait to marry this handsome man! 

Best thing to wake up to this morning? 

A sneak peek of our save the date session from yesterday! 

How perfect that Libby got these up today of all days :) 

More to come...

Wedding Wednesday

Today was the perfect day for a Wedding Wednesday post because we did our photo-shoot for our save-the-dates!

I have been emailing with our photographer, Libby McGowan, for over a month now and was so excited to finally put a face with the name. Let me just tell y'all, she is ahhhhhh-freaking-mazing! I love her so much :) Jared and I are not really into posing for pictures (especially Jared) but she made us feel super comfortable and it ended up feeling like we were just hanging out with an old friend. I don't know what I was freaking out stressed about. I could go on forever about how wonderful she is, but really we are very thankful to have such a great person capture all the special moments leading up to and including our big day! YAY! A big thanks again to my wonderful older brother, James, for making this happen for us all.

Originally, I wanted all the pictures to be done in Raleigh (the save-the-dates and the engagements) but sadly, the weather was just not cooperating when we were suppose to be in Raleigh. So Libby made the trip up to Winston-Salem to take the pictures. Bless her because she knows I am stressed about getting these done and out in time. I am actually super happy Raleigh didn't work out because now we have wonderful pictures of us in a location that has been a huge part of our lives for the past year. It worked out perfectly. So now we will be in Winston-Salem, Raleigh, and Wilmington, all places that have been special to us throughout our relationship.

I am going to try and keep the main pictures we are using for the save-the-dates under wraps because I want it to be a total surprise for our guests! But, Libby said there would be sneak peeks coming out soon so maybe I will share some :)

Hint: the pictures included one of the men in this picture.
The backdrop for some of the pictures may or may not be the same. 

Now I am preparing to spend a week and a half in Wilmington with my sweet mom! Were going to do some extensive wedding planning and get her house ready for our engagement party in two weeks! 

Happy Birthday Caitlin

Today my best friend and maid of honor turn 24!

Caitlin and I met in middle school, where we didn't exactly get along...the feud went on until we were brought together by mutual friends the summer before starting high school. Thus, this magical friendship was born and we have been nearly inseparable ever since. I have blessed with a wonderful and amazing friend who has supported me through everything. Though we have had our ups and downs and we now live in different cities I couldn't imagine the last 10(ish) years of my life without her. I am so thankful that she will be standing next to me the day Jared and I get married. Thank you for being born Caitlin :)

This weekend I traveled to Raleigh to spend the weekend before Caitlin's birthday with her! It was a blast and I am fortunate to have such wonderful friends!

What a pal

We hopped on the parked Trolly Pub

Channeling our inner Rodney Purvis before the game. Didn't work. 

Love my Layne. 

Don't ever make a bet with a Strikol.
Justin bet Kim last State/Carolina game. He lost.
This was his outfit for the game. 

I love you all and thank you for another wonderful weekend!

Jared and I were suppose to take our save-the-date pictures this weekend, but the weather was nasty so we rescheduled to do them this Wednesday in Winston-Salem (Eek)!

Wedding Wednesday

This is my very first "Wedding Wednesday" post! I have seen this on many of the Southern Bride Bloggers pages' and I think it is a wonderful idea :) And bonus, gives me a reason to blog strictly about wedding (aka no NCLEX or job hunting)!

Most of the ladies I see post their wedding to-do list and I love that idea. However, we are a little over 7 months away (Holy Crap, when did that happen) and I have done very little planning so seeing that all listed out would probably put me into a straight up tail spin panic.

Save the Date Madness 

So, that leads me to my exciting Wedding Wednesday news...we are meeting with our photographer this weekend in Raleigh to shoot for our save-the-dates!! I had never heard of doing this before she mentioned it to us, but we were worried about doing our engagement pictures when it is so cold but knew we wanted to use a photo for our save-the-dates and wanted the save-the-date picture to be different from the engagement pictures (not so mushy-gushy-lovey-dovey)...thus, the "Save-The-Date Photo Shoot" was born!

I have been scouring the internet and obviously Pinterest for ideas. We want them to be original and that describe us as a couple. So pictures of us in a field kissing, sitting on a blanket having a picnic, or holding a sign is out of the question.

I have tons of ideas and with the help of our amazing photographer I know we will get the perfect one and it will be true to us.

Here are some of the ones I like so far...

this is adorable 

we love movies  

would be the winner if we were both teachers 

awesome, but we would be doing belly-flops..

hello, at Carter Finley? perfection. 

this was one of Jared's picks. 

These are all great and I think they show off each couple differently which is what I want ours to do! Sadly, none of these are the winner ideas for our shoot. Guess, y'all will just have to wait to see what we put together this weekend! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Bonus for Jared? More practice for engagement and wedding photos, yay!?! I know he is just as excited ;)

I will be sure to share!

Done.

It is officially official...

I am DONE with nursing school FOREVER (until I go back and get my NP that is...) 

It only took 13 crazy hectic bizarre short months to complete my second degree, Bachelor of Science in Nursing. It was well worth the stress, tears, sweat, and blood (literally) to get to this point because it feels amazing! 

We took celebration to the extreme Friday after the final. Wish I had captured more of the excitement. Here are some of my favorites from the day.

Just before the final :) 

Thank You E, I have about 20 that look similar to this.
But, this was my favorite! 

Love Y'all! 

J serenading E  

Jared and Josh arm wrestle.

love. 

Accelerated nursing students know how to celebrate 

Oh David. 

I still am not an RN yet though. Sadly, I have to take the dreaded NCLEX! Which will only be the hardest test I will ever take and my career as a nurse is riding on it...no big deal, right? 

I now get the pleasure of dividing my time between NCLEX studying, wedding planning, and finding a job! 

Wish me luck. 

Valentine's

Happy Birthday Michael David Cupid Spicka

Yes, that is his real name :) My little brother was born 20 years ago today!  Even though he goes to UNC-CH I still love him very much and can forgive him for making poor choices in his life ;) He is a Biomedical Engineer Major who moonlights as a fashionista working at J. Crew while also working as a lab assistant generating organs & using fancy-science-like-language. Basically, he is amazing. I am so proud of the man he has become and can't wait to see what the future brings him. Happy Birthday baby brother!

Manly.

Aside from the birth of my wonderful brother, Valentine's Day hasn't always been my favorite holiday. Not because I was a cynical-lonely-sad-freaky-cat-lady, but it just seems silly to me. But, I now realize the importance of Valentine's Day (other than Michael coming into the world) is to tell the ones you love how much they mean to you and it is not all about giving gifts...

My One and Only 

I am so lucky to have Jared be my forever valentine! This is our fourth and last one before we become husband and wife...SO crazy and exciting! 

"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay" Ruth 1:16

The first Valentine's rose Jared got me 4 years ago! 

 L.O.V.E.

On top of giving love to the ones special to me, I was also shown love. 

A thoughtful gift from a sweet lady in my class, perfect before starting our marriage!
Thanks Donna! 

Donna also got Gary Chapman to sign them for us! Blown away. 

My valentine from Mel :) 

Can't believe it has been 13 months! Eep! 

Homestretch

home·stretch

 [hohm-strech] noun

1.

the straight part of a racetrack from the last turn to the finish line.

2.

the final phase of any endeavor

Well, I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you dictionary.com

Last night was my last day of clinical ever as a student nurse!!!!! Hallelujah I can hear the white uniform angels singing now! Hard to believe my clumsy self made it all the way to the end in an all white uniform with only one mishap (I washed gum in my jacket pocket)! These babies will either be burned to shreds Friday night or passed down to a sad miserable current nursing student  who I do not envy at all!

Can't contain the excitement! 

Although my clinicals are officially over for nursing school I still have my last final...

Hello, have you seen my motivation? 

The final is Friday afternoon and I have yet to start studying. I have finished all my other work and can find time to daydream about how I am going to celebrate Friday afternoon at 3 pm (most dreams include mass amounts of junk food and strong drinks) but I can't seem to bring myself to review. Maybe I will start tomorrow...

Right now I just want to scream, "I AM ALMOST DONE, BOOYAH!"

In other news... 

I still have the best future husband to ever grace this earth. 

He surprised me Saturday afternoon with fresh roses, a new pair of sunglasses, and a nice steak dinner. This was our early Valentine's Day celebration since Jared has a final on V-Day and I have one the day after. Boo. 

What a man, whatta man, whatta mighty mighty good man 

Steak Dinner. Top: Mine, Neil's, and Gwyn's. Bottom: Jared's. 

As if I could love them anymore! TJ's is now selling these kits. I am obsessed with fresh guacamole! 

Ended the night with our new little weekend tradition of game night! Jared and I  typically dominates.

Sometimes I just can't believe how incredibly lucky I am! So blessed and truly thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. 

Resolutions

I usually don't make resolutions because I always seem to break them. However, this year is different. Not only have I made resolutions, but I have stuck to them (well, most of them)...

1. No Fast Food! 

Jared and I both committed to not eating fast food for the year of 2013!

I know you are thinking we are nuts! I honestly didn't think we would survive because that is our go to meals on Saturdays. However, this has been surprisingly easy to do and I have never felt better! 

Everyone considers "fast food" something different. So let me clarify, we were giving up the drive thru restaurants that serve grease-fried-stick-on-your-hips-for-life-make-you-have-diarrhea-kind of foods. Subway and Jimmy John's, though fast, we are allowed to eat. 

If you think this cannot be done because fast food is so convenient and delicious, think again. I found this little gem today and it almost made me puke...

This if from Nutrition-Nurse.com and these burgers & fries were purchased over 2 years ago and this is the condition they are currently in today. YUCK!  

Now, I am not saying we all need to go Vegan, stop showering, and become tree hugging hippies, but we should all think twice about what we put in our bodies. Just food for thought (oh, yes, pun fully intended)! 

2. Start Running Again 

Yeah, this didn't exactly happen the way I thought. I am putting the blame on nightshift. But, I have managed to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day with Beau. It is a start and I am going to get serious after I am done with school, I hope. Needless to say, Jared and I will at least be doing one 5K before we get married! 

3. Blogging 

This was not one of my original resolutions, but I started this blog in January so technically it can be considered a resolution. I think I have stuck to this pretty well. I promise to start writing about more interesting things. It will soon be filled with wedding planning in less than 8 days!! 

4. Try New Things 

I have never really been one to shy away from trying something new and I have never really been afraid to make a fool of myself. But, I think after we got engaged my wild side kind of toned itself down. So I am hoping that in 2013 I can remember what it was like to let some of my inhibitions go for a little while.

This past weekend we did just that. 

We went to a bar called Johnny and Junes (not our typical "scene") here in Winston-Salem. We had a blast! And yes, we ALL rode the mechanical bull. With a little liquid courage we were able to make fools of ourselves and it felt amazing! 

Yep that is Neil taking life by the horns! 

Jared was right at home

Gwyn and I before we "tackled" the bull

haha obviously we were the cutest and most experienced bull-riders in there

Remember...

Wedding Rant

Happy Friday and Happy February Folks!

I just wanted to share the ultimate wedding day pet peeve of mine with you all. 

Since I am currently planning my own wedding I am constantly looking at wedding videos on vimeo.com to get ideas for our wedding. I have found a lot of things that I love and a lot of things I would never dream of doing. Mostly I just start to cry about 30 seconds into the videos because they are so beautiful and weddings get me every time. If I don't cry at my own I will be very surprised. 

The number one thing I will NEVER do is see Jared before I walk down that aisle. I actually get mad when I see this happen. I would not describe myself or our wedding as traditional. But, this is one wedding tradition I would not dream of breaking. I understand the argument for seeing them before...there is more time for pictures...you aren't keeping you're guests waiting...you get that special time just before with the two of you...blah blah blah. I still disagree. 

Even though I have never done it, I can imagine that there is no other surprise (other than finding out you are pregnant or the sex of the baby) that can top that moment when you see you soon-to-be husband at the end of the aisle and he sees you for the first time. I get butterflies thinking about it. 

Sorry for all you brides that love the idea of seeing the groom beforehand, but I think it is just down right ridiculous. 

However, I do love pictures like this...

A sweet moment without seeing each other 

I am so excited to do this because our venue has doors just like this! 

In other news we have officially begun planning for our engagement pictures (finally)! There hasn't been a good time with school and everything else to set a date. We are shooting for the end of February! I am so excited to start working with our photographer Libby McGowan! 

I forgot to mention earlier...I have THE BEST big brother in the whole world! His wedding present to Jared & I was to pay for the photographer for the wedding (the ultimate wedding package at that)! We could not thank him enough for such a wonderful gift! 

With that being said, I am now under pressure to pick out a place where we want the pictures done. Obviously, we are thinking Raleigh, NC. It is our favorite place and it is where we met. We have some other ideas, but want to keep those secret until the pictures are posted! 

I want to keep it true to who Jared and I are as a couple. I love pictures of people doing the cute-sy little things in the park or faking a picnic, but that is just not us at all! 

Here are some ideas I love. 

Love the background 

Jared will obviously be picking me up 

Love the colors and the pose 

Let's be real, Jared and I don't canoe or dress like that, but this is adorable.

This is more like us. Clumsy and a hot mess.