The Proposal

One year ago today, Jeremy asked me to be his wife.  That was such a wonderful night! Jeremy proposed in downtown Lynchburg on Percival Island.  Percival Island is on the James River and there is a river walk going to the island.  People go down to run, walk, ride bikes, and fish.

I thought I’d share the pictures we took the day we got engaged and tell the story of how it all happened.  Here’s our proposal story:

This picture was taken the day he proposed on the riverwalk.  You can see the end of Percival Island in this picture- where those little trees are in the middle of the water.    

That day, I had suggested that Jeremy and I go and do something outside because it was such a pretty day.  We decided to go to Percival Island and walk around.  We had been a couple of times before and it is always a nice place to go that is fun to explore.  As we were walking to the island, Jeremy suggested that we carve our names into a tree.  I had been telling him I wanted to carve our names in a tree for as long as we had been dating, so of course I was excited! 

We walked around the island trying to find the perfect tree.  Here is Jeremy standing by the water a few minutes before we found “our tree”. 

Carving our initials into a tree was harder than we originally thought.  We tried a couple of trees before finding one that was easy enough to carve.  First we were going to carve out a heart (you can see that above our initials) and then we realized it was better just to do an outline of a heart.  We carved each others initials and then I insisted on taking tons of pictures because I was so excited.  Meanwhile Jeremy is trying to get me to stop so he can propose :) 

When I finally stopped taking pictures, Jeremy starting saying all of these sweet things and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  I have never been happier and of course said yes!  We had decided way back that we were not going to kiss until we got engaged, so after he proposed we shared our first kiss.  It was such a sweet and special time for us that I will always cherish. 

The picture below is right after he asked me to marry him.  The sun had started to go down and I didn’t think about using the flash in the excitement, so its a little dark.

The picture below is the one I took of my ring on my phone to send to everyone that night while we sat on the riverwalk and called everybody to share the big news.

It was such a wonderful day, and I’m so glad I had the camera with me to capture it all!

 

Someday I’m going to buy a necklace like one of these.  Wouldn’t they be perfect for our story? (Click on the picture to see the source)

Last night we went back to Percival Island to celebrate one year of being engaged.  Our tree looks a little different now- it is in the water!  Here are some pictures from last night….

Jeremy had to go out on a log to inspect our initials- they are still there, but much harder to see, and much harder to get to :)

I tried to zoon in to get a picture of the initials, you can kind of see them in the picture below.  Now he’s just playing around…

I wanted to take a picture of the two of us.  Jeremy was in a playful mood, but not a picture taking mood… Here’s what I got for pictures.  His sense of humor- just one of the many reasons I love him :)

   

Seriously, we’re gonna be here all night if I don’t get a good picture…

This one will have to do.

Honeymoon Jar

About two years ago I started a honeymoon jar.  It was just a change jar that I planned to use for honeymoon expenses.  A couple of girls in my dorm were engaged and had started a jar, so I figured I could start before I got engaged and would have even more saved up by my honeymoon. :)   I decided to dump it all out and count it today.  I had filled up 1 and 1/2 mason jars in two years, pretty good for someone who doesn’t hardly use cash! 

I dumped it all out on the floor and separated it before counting to make it a little easier. 

I counted it up and bagged it with the totals on it so I can roll them and take them to the bank.  Can you take change that isn’t rolled to the bank?  I would much prefer to not have to do that step. 

Wanna guess the total?……..

………..

………..

……….

$82.24! 

That will make for a few good meals in Savannah come June :) 

If you’re engaged I suggest doing this, you’ll never miss the change, and it feels nice to have a few extra dollars for the honeymoon.  Even if already married this is great to do to save for vacations or a special date night.  My dad always did this each year for our beach trip in the summer and it was always fun to count the money before we went to see how much we had and then use for eating money.  What could you save up for?

Wedding Invitations

Tonight I had another wedding project workday with my roommate and good friend Chrissey.  We finished making all of the wedding invitations!  I’m all about DIY for the wedding, and the invitations are no exception. 

I used a “print at home” invitation kit that came with 50 invitations, 50 reply cards, 50 envelopes and 50 reply card envelopes. I bought them because they had the perfect blue envelopes, and decided to print our invitations on the white back side of the invitations from the kit.

I started out with two of these invitation kits. They were only $4.99 each!  Ollie’s is amazing!

I then wrote up my invitations on Word and printed them out on the backside of the invitation using my regular ole’ printer. 

We trimmed them down a little so that I could make a border using a sand colored paper that I picked up at Michael's.  I left a space at the top of the invitations to put a stamped seashell.

My roommate and bridesmaid, Sarah, showed me about a year ago how to emboss with rubber stamps and I loved it!  I decided to emboss a stamped shell on the invitation.  Embossing gives the images a raised texture and makes it shiny. 

Here is Sarah embossing tonight…

 

And Chrissey using the heat gun to make the embossing powder melt and raise.  It’s so cool how it works!

I put the finished invitation on the sand colored paper and then tied a raffia bow around them. 

And this is how they turned out!

I’m really happy with the finished product, and so thankful for the girls for helping me out.  We knocked them all out in a few hours tonight.  I had been working on addressing the envelopes earlier this week so I was able to go ahead and stuff the invitations in the envelopes.  Now I just have to figure out a design for the reply cards and they will be ready to be sent out in April!  I’m happy to be ahead of schedule and getting projects done early.  Hopefully this will make the last few months less stressful!

Only 147 days until the wedding….it’s getting close!

Our Save the Date Postcards

Because everyone coming to our wedding will have travel, we decided to send out Save the Date cards so people who plan to attend can be making plans to go to the beach this summer.  I made the signs before we went using some old scrap wood and painting them a pale blue.  The lettering was suppose to be brown, but it showed up orangish in the pictures- oh well. 

I created our Save the Dates using one of our engagement pictures, and made them into postcards. We did postcards to save money on postage.  Such an easy way to save since postcard postage is about half that of regular stamps.  My favorite part is the vintage postcard label that I found at Martha Stewart weddings.  I added our information in using Paint (I can't figure out photoshop or gimp, and didn't know how to save as a jpeg file in Word, so I had to go old school and use the Paint program).

National Gingerbread House Competition

Jeremy and I went home to NC this weekend and we decided to make a little detour to Asheville before heading back to Lynchburg. 

Every year Grove Park Inn hosts the National Gingerbread Competition in November and the houses are displayed until January.  During the week, the public is welcome to come and look at all the gingerbread houses!  They are spread throughout the Inn so it is always fun to go and see the houses as well as explore the Inn.

Yesterday it was snowing in Asheville and made for a beautiful day to be in the mountains! 

Doesn't that just look beautiful?  I thought it was quite romantic :)

Here are some of my favorite gingerbread houses:

This was in the children's division!  I think it is so pretty!

This was the first prize winner of the children's division

Look at all those gingerbread houses!

This was 2nd place for teen division.  I love white churches!

First place for teen division was this adorable gingerbread house made like the movie Up!

My second favorite gingerbread house.  One of the top ten in the adult category

I think this Noah' Ark was second place in the adult category

This was a cute "reindeer spa"

This was by far my favorite gingerbread house! It is so beautiful!!  It was one of the top ten in the adult category.

They had so many beautiful Christmas trees!  I loved this one because they used hydrangeas to decorate it.

This was a pretty bluish silver tree

And a rustic country tree

We had a wonderful day together!

Satisfaction

I went black Friday shopping with my mom, aunt, cousin, and my cousin's boyfriend this year and although it was CRAZY, we had a good time.  It amazes me what people will do to get a good deal.  With all the scenes of people grabbing stuff the last few days, I have been thinking about the need for satisfaction.  Our culture is obsessed with stuff.  I think we all fall prey to materialism more often than not.  I'm slowing learning that less is more and will hopefully be putting that into practice as Jeremy and I begin to build our home. 

This weekend as I was home in NC for the holidays, I took a good look around my room and realized just how much JUNK I have acquired! I went on a cleaning spree and threw away 11 trash bags full of stuff!  11...that is ridiculous.  How do I get so consumed by things?  I often have to remind myself that this life isn't about what we have but Who we have living inside us.  I live this life for so much more than pretty decorations, piles of magazines, furniture, clothes, books, and whatever else I have collected through the years.  I desire to live every second for Him alone. 

Too much stuff takes too much of my attention.  As I am preparing to make mine and Jeremy's first place a comfortable home for us to enjoy, I don't want to crowd it with too much unnecessary junk.  Even things that I think we will be pretty in our home can be unnecessary. I want to find satisfaction in the needs the Lord supplies and be grateful for the abundance He provides.

Are you satisfied with your stuff?  Do you always wish you had every cool accessory you saw at the store, every cute outfit you see at the mall, or even that new car you've been eyeing?  Be satisfied with the fact that the Lord has provided your needs, and realize that less really is more.  Maybe its time for a purge around your home as well?

Pumpkin Day!

Jeremy and I had a "pumpkin day" today and we had such a good time.  To start the day off, we went to Daybreak Restaurant here in Lynchburg and had pumpkin pancakes!  One of my favorite things about fall is pumpkin pancakes. 

After pancakes, we headed to a nearby nursery to pick up a pumpkin.  There were lots of different colors and varieties of pumpkins and gourds.  Here are a few of my favorites...

The gourds below are called snake gourds- they were so long and twisty!

The knucklehead pumpkins reminded me of my daddy- he always calls people "knuckleheads" :)

Later tonight we came to my apartment and carved my pumpkin that I bought- I decided to do a lighthouse jack-o-lantern.  I couldn't find a printable stencil online so we free handed it.  Not sure that anybody else could tell that it is a lighthouse, but I like it! :) 

We roasted the pumpkin seeds...yummy yummy, and then made pumpkin muffins!  I'll post tomorrow with the recipe, they are fantastic and moist. 

Loved spending time with my husband-to-be, and loved the pumpkin themed day!