 Stockbyte And it’s finally starting to take shape! Nope, not my booty—even after completing squats galore for the past few months (I’m destined to never have one, thanks to my father’s stick frame)—I’m talking about the shape of my wedding dress. After a handful of appointments with my seamstress, about four returned undergarments, and a slight spike in my stress level, the dress is starting to really take shape and it couldn’t happen soon enough because our wedding day will be here before we know it!
I feel like I went into this whole thing extremely prepared. When my dress arrived at the beginning of the year, I instantly dropped it off to my seamstress. (After my parent’s cat had been eyeing up the garment bag that housed my dress to use as a scratching post, I was anxious to get it out of their house.) A few weeks later, my mom and I found ourselves at my first alteration appointment, holding my dress up as my seamstress jokingly complained about the structure of it. The dress fit pretty well from mid-waist down, almost perfectly—but don’t worry, the top half of the dress made up for it’s almost perfection.
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 iStockphoto Do you have a song that, every time you hear it, takes you back to a moment you’ve nearly forgotten about? You catch yourself in the grocery store daydreaming while staring at a can of beans or while waiting at a stoplight, and you’re suddenly snapped into reality when the person behind you honks their horn during the chorus. Well, the song that Eric and I have chosen for our first dance, and the song my dad and I will dance to, have done that to me for years. And it’s so exciting to know that for the rest of my life when I hear them after the wedding, I’ll immediately be thrown back into that moment.
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 Kristy at her bridal shower last weekend. You know the saying “It takes a village to raise a child”? Well, it came full circle to me this weekend when I realized how many people, events, and moments made me into the person I am today. Sometimes, I guess, it takes a momentous event, like your bridal shower to make you realize it.
This past weekend, I gathered with some of the ladies from my “village” to celebrate our upcoming nuptials. There were women from all aspects of my life; ladies that babysat me before school, ones that fed me homemade meatballs every Sunday, ones that shared late nights and even ones that shared too many glasses of wine. But more importantly, ladies who have shaped me into a woman that will soon marry the love of her life. And what better way to celebrate this than good food and wine, amazing company, embarrassing soon-to-be-newlywed games, and a showering of presents!
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 Hemera To veil or not to veil?
This has been my ongoing debate for the past few months. I really didn’t think I’d be losing sleep over this decision, since it seems so minor compared to the mountain of decisions we’ve made throughout the wedding planning process. But I think I’m taking this one very personally, since I think it says a lot about a bride’s style, and lends a certain feel to the wedding day.
So here I am, two months before the wedding, still debating and constantly researching this accessory. I’ve done it all: researched the history of veils, types of veils, hairstyles with and without a veil, and even purchased hair accessories to incorporate into my hair style if I opt to not wear a veil. So, when I visited a dear family friend, Janet, a few days ago for hair trial number two and she said, “Well, where’s the veil?” I honestly wasn’t sure how to reply.
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 One of the many inspiration boards Kristy brought to her meeting with her florist. There’s something about flowers that I’ve always loved. They remind me of the change of seasons, they bring life into your home, and they smell amazing. You’d think with all my admiration I’d know a thing or two about them, but I don’t. So when it came time to meet with our florist, I was a bit intimidated.
In preparation, I became a Pintrest addict, pinning anything floral and yellow. Besides boutonnieres and bouquets, we decided to incorporate flowers in our centerpieces, add a little formality to our ceremony with them, and jazz up our cocktail tables with their beauty. Because these three parts of our wedding change in both scenery and atmosphere, we wanted the flowers to keep consistency throughout the day.
Choosing our florist was an easy decision thanks to my cousin and bridesmaid, Colleen. She works for an amazing event-planning company with in-house florists, called Eventricity. It was a no-brainer because they do superb work, and I completely trust them (and my cousin!) in doing a fabulous job.
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 How good of a job did Kristy do on her wedding invites? Like a kid on Christmas morning, I sat staring at a highly anticipated present yesterday. After months of development, our invitations had arrived. I decided early on during the planning process that I would like to design our wedding invitations. I thought it would be a nice, personal touch, and since I’m proficient in Photoshop and similar programs, I wasn’t intimidated. I’m extremely happy with the results and for anyone interested in DIYing their invites, here are some guidelines and parameters for the journey ahead.
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Remembering our first date.
 Kristy and Eric last year at their engagement party. Eric celebrated his birthday this past week, and finally turned my age. Every year, I endure six months of grueling comments such as, “Meet my older fiancé,” or the constant reminder that I’m “robbing the cradle.” Even though he never lets me forget it, it is, after all, this humor and fun-loving spirit that stole my heart nearly nine years ago, and in celebrating Eric’s birthday, I’m reminded of all the birthdays we’ve spent together and the journey that has led us here today.
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 Dynamic Graphics Sometimes you need a little pick-me-up in life—or in my case, wedding planning.
I had had a few power weeks, once even having three different wedding-related appointments in a week, and was constantly working on some wedding detail. And then a lazy weekend rolled around, and a busy work week, and I was constantly pushing my tasks aside. But then one of the more exciting and enjoyable appointments came along: cake tasting! And there’s nothing like a good sugar rush to get your booty moving and back on track.
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 Kristy and Eric with their new nephew and niece! This week, it was very easy for Eric and I to find joy in the little things. For weeks we’ve been feeling the pressure of anticipated responsibilities—but now that they’ve been thrown into our lives, they’ve brought us nothing but happiness.
The titles aunt and uncle were added to our list this past week when two (yes, I said two) little babies safely entered our lives. Two very little, adorable, and perfect people have stolen our hearts and what little extra attention we had to give. And now, we spend our days disregarding wedding planning, instead rocking our niece or nephew to sleep, or just sitting, stunned and in awe of their cuteness.
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 Photodisc Finally this week, we got down to some details! It’s my professional and personal preference: I love the knitty gritty details. It was a wedding-packed week, but I was excited to start some new tasks and cross a few more off our ever-growing to-do list. With that being said, I’d love to share with you how we made some tough decisions, easily and stress free.
First things first: We sat down with Donald Conner of Conner Catering this past week, and finalized our menu selection, linen selection, time frame of events, and discussed other planning-related topics. In preparation for our meeting, we had marked off our preferred hors d’oeuvres and picked out a few salads and sides that interested us, but left the final decision up to complement our main entree, the narrowed-down list of which (we decided on a chicken and a fish) we presented to Donald at our meeting. We wanted his opinion on everything, since he is much more familiar with each selection on his menu and how they compliment each other. He also allowed us to adjust and customize choices, like combining certain elements of one salad with another or eliminating a spice in a dish we didn’t prefer. We ended up with a lovely summer selection that we are satisfied with and can’t wait to enjoy!
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