A Little Lubbock Lovin...

Lately the wedding festivities have been kicked into overdrive! A few weekends ago the fun began with our first official wedding gift arriving in the mail.

Love some Macy's!

We were like 5-year-olds on Christmas morning!

That Thursday I was busy cleaning as the whole gang would be arriving in Lubbock for my first shower on Friday when all of a sudden there was a knock at my door. Not expecting anyone I was taken back a bit, but soon realized it was probably my fab friend Harriette with my pressed dress for the shower (yes, steamer is on the registry!). Opening the door slowly just to be sure, I was reassured when it did turn out to be Harriette, but I was surprised to also see a friendly face pop out from the corner...it was my beautiful maid of honor Molly!!!! Sent into shock I was speechless and could not believe she had drove from Dallas for the shower. After collecting my bearings and settling down a bit we popped some champagne in celebration for what would be a fun and very bridal weekend!

The following day the rest of the family arrived so the whole gang headed to lunch before the big night.

The girls :)

Kyle was a little over-dressed for Fuzzy's...future lawyer at work :)

Mom-osa and Mom-arita!

After a lovely lunch and a little more work, I was free to go for the day so the girls headed to our favorite little store HodgePodge to look at some invitations.

SO many options!!

What seemed like hours went by as we thumbed through the stack of binders in front of us debating every detail of the invite...square or rectangle, raised or flat print, shiny or matte finish, it went on and on...but finally we did it! Wedding invitations picked out and wording decided along with rehearsal dinner invites selected. After taking over the store for a bit we headed home to get ready for the "sweet" bridal shower!

 Love my future initials!

For "sweet" sayings from my lovely friends!

Best MOH a girl could ask for

Future Sister-in-Law

TTU Law Ladies and their biggest fan :)

Sweet mother!

Future family!!

Chi Omega Love :)

 After a lovely celebration with family and friends the next day was Rex & Audrey's turn at their couple's shower! We have so enjoyed all our wedding festivities/vent sessions as couples to be wed!

At Rex & Audrey's shower!

The boys with the groom!

The weekend ended just as well as it started with the promise of more wedding fun to be had...bridal portraits just happened to be the following weekend, but of course that must remain a secret until January ;).

White after Labor Day...fasion faux pas or not?

So one of the things that has been keeping my spare time (loose interpretations of "spare") occupied is online shopping and not just any online shopping but "white dress" shopping. So the question I pose is whether or not the age-old fashion standard of not wearing white after Labor Day applies to brides to be?!

You would think the answer would be a simple yes, however I've come to find that really these days anything goes! If you know me well enough you know that I am definitely an analyzer, a rule follower at heart and mostly a people-pleaser, there I said it! :) As of lately though I'm starting to think that as a bride to be, I can go against the grain and do what's going to make me happy. Isn't this the one time in a woman's life she is allowed to do, say, feel, and (insert any verb here) because she is the bride to be?

Well after consulting some of my fashionista friends, finding numerous white dresses among "new arrivals" at most every boutique and store, and even purchasing a few, my conclusion is....YES!! You can absolutely wear white as a bride to be after Labor Day! So until I stop seeing white dresses as new arrivals or until I have been surprised by Stacy or Clinton from What Not to Wear because my friends think I am insane, ORRR until January 26th, 2013 I will happily be pinning, liking and purchasing every white dress I can get my hands on for showers and various other "bridal duties" if you will! Here's some of my inspiration....

Ah yes the classic white lace dress everyone tries to get their hands on!

Pinterest pinners, I'm sure this one looks familiar! :)

Sparkles!

Classy

Different!

Favorite color blue :)

And all just in time for my first shower this weekend with friends and family, which I could not be more excited about! Let the bridal festivities begin!

Pampering at its Prime!

A weekend of makeup and hair appointments you say....I think yes! A few weekends ago I spent most of the time doing the more girly items so as you can imagine Kyle opted out of this weekend. Not to mention it was the first home game of the season, but don't worry the Fight Song was downloaded and played after every touchdown just for the occasion! Because the weekend was full of makeup and hair trials and another dress fitting there aren't many pictures to share, so I apologize for heavier text!

First we headed downtown for a hair and makeup consultation. Braving the public without any makeup at 8 in the morning was a little challenging, but definitely well worth it for the end results! After getting all done up we headed to try on my dress after alterations had been made. With nerves brewing we slipped the dress on and to my relief....it fit! I think every girl's stress level is elevated two fold when it comes to trying on the dress. (Especially if you're like me and bulge the second food hits your mouth!). After finding relief in the fact that (for that day) the dress fit and with both my grandma and mom in tow, we sat down for a marvelous lunch before bridal accessory shopping!

Ok so lesson #1 from a whole day of shopping:

The wedding dress = easy to find
Bridal accessories = near impossible!!

We spent the whole day looking for shoes, earrings, and everything bridal but with no luck at the end of the day.

Solution = online shopping, my new best friend!

Since that weekend we have gotten a lot accomplished including...

• All bridal portrait details taken care of (week and a half to go!)
• Makeup and hair booked
• Florist finalized
• Bridesmaid dresses ordered
• Guest book created, ordered and received
• Wedding album ordered
• Invitations selected 
• Mini-moon decided on!
• Fun details taken care of
• And bridal beauty regiment in full swing!

We're almost 4 months out which is so hard to believe but extremely exciting! Till next time :).

6 Month (out) Check Up!

I know it's been a while since my last post and I'm about to take a two week hiatus for sorority recruitment so please forgive the lengthy post :). In July I was able to make a quick trip home before our 6 month out mark! Although I would have loved Kyle to tag along it was nice spending probably one of the last weekends with my parents as Ms. Robare :).

The first order of business was to visit the reception venue and then the church. Even though I had been in both before, this time was even more special as my grandma Robare was able to tag along! First stop was The Pearl Stable...

The Culinary Institute of America just happens to be right by our reception venue :)

We arrive a little early and stopped by this gem of a bakery and coffee shop!

Yum!

View of the Pearl Brewery and the Culinary Institute of America!

Another little glimpse of the brewery outside the bakery

Dad led the way!

After getting our caffeine for the day we played a game of 20 questions for reception details but a very fun game of 20 questions! Being able to visualize everything was such a relief and made everything come together. I think the best part was visualizing all our family and friends filling the space with laughter, cheers, maybe some tears, but a whole lot of fun! Next it was off to our church which really made things more real and definitely gave us a few goosies. 

Can't get enough of this church!

Sneak peek of the chancel and organ.

The rest of the weekend was jam packed with another florist consultation, several hair and makeup appointments, stationary and my first fitting!! It was such a productive and fun weekend with Rocky and Bullwinkle (aka mom and dad, gotta love the Crowl nicknames for everyone!) which led into a celebratory week with Kyle at 6 months out!

Thursday, July 26th marked 6 months out and we definitely wanted to enjoy the moment and relax a bit (ok maybe me more than Kyle)! I will give him credit though for at least knowing that it was about to be 6 months out. Since work has continued to get more hectic, Kyle was sweet enough to pick up some champagne to toast to 6 months out and we did what we enjoy the most...cooked a delicious meal together.

On the menu...cajun pasta with shrimp and french bread!

Champs!

"7-26-2012 6 months out!" 

"CHEERS to the future Mr. and Mrs. Crowl" :)

That weekend we decided to extend the celebration and explored around Lubbock a bit. First we visited our favorite winery and then stopped by a really beautiful memorial I had never seen before! 

Memorial for Commander McCool from the Colombia space disaster..

The boy represents Commander McCool as a boy and the large statue is his adult life

It's crazy what new things Kyle and I stumble on just roaming around the town we've lived in for 6+ years. The spontaneity of the day was appreciated and very refreshing. After our adventures around town we decided to really indulge at the best kept secret in Lubbock and our absolutely favorite restaurant.

Such an amazing meal!! 

Best nightcap!

The weekend was absolutely perfect and much needed. It's crazy to think that we are less than 6 months out and we could not be more excited.

The last thing on my personal "I need to get this done before Recruitment" list was sending out save the dates. So I recruited some help and with the entertainment of Kyle while we did all the work, we began stuffing, sealing and stamping!

Love how they turned out!!

Perfect fit! 

Ready for sealing!

Stuffed, sealed and stamped!

We're now coming up on 5 months out and although we have a lot accomplished there's still so much to do and much more fun to be had! I feel like now the real fun starts and I cannot wait to get back to wedding planning!

"No Wedding Wednesdays"

When a woman becomes engaged she sort of unintentionally enters into a new network of past brides or soon to be brides that offer advice from one of two perspectives - a "This isn't my first rodeo" type of perspective (typically the bride that did everything to a T, and perfectly, and wants to tell you all about it) or a "What was I thinking" type of perspective (may have had some wedding day bloopers and willing to tell you about it). Either way you have to prepare yourself when entering this new club and take everything in stride. I've come to find out that the wedding planning process has begun to make me an even more decisive person and has really allowed my Type A personality time to shine. You learn to make decisions based on what works for you and your fiancé and not sweat the small stuff (as much as possible). To me when it comes to wedding planning any advice is good advice, whether you choose to use it or not. So for all those Type A brides-to-be, here is link to an online TLC article I recently found that may help out!

5 Wedding Planning Tips for the Type A Bride

For those that prefer cliff notes...

5. Pick Your Organizational Pleasure - stick to one form of organization (computer, phone, old-fashioned paper)

4. Manage Expectations - tell people what you need from them, but stay within reason!
3. Full Disclosure - know what you want and communicate this to vendors (begin "pinning" now)
2. Embrace Your Nature - it's ok to be nerdy and organized in a bordering on OCD type of way!
1. Don't Overdo It - don't sweat the small stuff

To add to TLC's final and most important tip of not overdoing it, I wanted to share a story about the best piece of advice I have received! A while back on a plane ride to San Antonio I happen to sit next to one of my sorority sisters and colleagues which began with the typical catch up session. Of course it wasn't but a few minutes into the conversation that wedding talk came into play. Since she recently got married in San Antonio  she had great recommendations for florists, makeup places, caterers, etc. I was taking mental notes just as fast as I could when she said it...the best bit of advice that completely trumped anything I had mentally cataloged for later use. She said the best thing you can do for yourself throughout the planning process is to pick one day a week where you do absolutely...NOTHING! That's right, no wedding talk, thoughts or decisions for one whole day to avoid going off the bridal deep end. Although I haven't quite been the best follower of this advice, I feel like being less than 7 months out calls for a strict adherence to this rule! Hence the creation and implementation of "No Wedding Wednesdays" from here on out.

Let's see how this goes...

Whirlwind of a Wedding Planning Weekend!

It's been a while since the last post, but we have been busy wedding planning as of late! This past weekend was probably the most reassuring weekend in that we were super productive and the best part was that my mom and I didn't have to plan a thing (thanks to our amazing wedding coordinator and cousin, Mercedes)!! So ever since then it feels like it's been smooth sailing and I could not be more grateful. On the agenda was bakers, linens, DJ's, invitations and florists. We had a busy Friday, Saturday and Sunday and with me just finishing up facilitating a conference and Kyle finishing his dreaded law school finals we were in for quite a weekend.

We first began with a cake tasting (what else would you guess for 9am!) in which we fell in LOVE with the baker, her sweet treats and the precious store. 

We blended in with the decor!

It's hard to see them, but she had the most stunning cupcakes on display!

Breakfast of champions

I wanted to take home the chairs and the wall color!!

When we had tried pretty much every combination the owner even made two cupcakes from scratch to take home with a different filling based on what we indicated we liked. I was more than impressed and may have found our baker with this one, absolutely the moistest cake we've tasted!

We then moved onto linens, which I'm not going to lie. did not seem that appealing at first. Once we arrived however I think we all realized how much fun dressing up a table could be. (Ok maybe not Kyle and dad, they plopped down on the lounging furniture for a majority of the appointment!)

Playing dress up with a table proved to be pretty entertaining and it wasn't before long until we decided on a new color scheme...

Watermelon anyone?

Ok anyone who knows me well enough is probably laughing by now and everyone else is just confused. We definitely will NOT be incorporating the watermelon theme, but it was fun to joke about!

Following our linen adventure, we headed to our first florist appointment which I was beyond excited about! Let me just say the possibilities are endless when it comes to flowers (and so is that price quote, whewwww!). The men that own the company were so fantastic and made us feel right at home. We discussed the look of our centerpieces, bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres, mother corsages and more. I think my favorite part was Kyle's confused/astonished expression as we chatted about ranunculus, asiatic lilys, ladies mantel and more, which to him sounded like (floral) foreign language.

Mercedes was our photographer extraordinaire for the day :)

As you well know by now our families like to eat, so we headed to a great new find in The Quarry, Urban Taco. Despite the menu being a little intimidating, the cuisine definitely delivered. If you're looking for a modern spin on a mexican taqueria, this is the place to go! Again, don't mind my foodie rave, we simply like to mix it up when we eat.

After lunch on to our first DJ appointment we went. Let me just say even I was overwhelmed on this one. I had NO idea how complicated something as simple as music could be. But it did get me pumped for those old classics everyone looks forward to hearing at the reception (you know that means some Journey!).

Before we knew it an hour had passed and it was on to another cake tasting..yum!!

Delicious!

Yes, everyone got two plates of cake!

Once we were stuffed to the brim we headed to our last appointment of the day, another florist. As you can imagine we were all ready to put our feet up and relax after 6 back to back meetings, such a productive day though!

Saturday was not as hectic, including two invitation appointments, another DJ appointment and last but not least, picking up my dress!

I thought my sorority Recruitment binder was big!!!

Helping pick out stationary..

With a hidden agenda...oh Kyle!

So cute

Once all our appointments were done, my mom and I headed to the bridal shop to pick up my dress and some accessories! The same woman that picked out my dress the first time just happened to be there and it was so fun playing dress up again!

Ahhh..it's all so real now!

Once the dress was placed delicately in the closet, I told me mom, "Ok if there is a fire, remember dress first then the dog!" Ha! But in all seriousness, I was so glad to finally have the dress in my grasp and cannot wait to put it on again.

So what could top a day like that? More registering of course! After a little rest at home and re-energizing, Kyle and I headed to Target like two kids in a candy store.

Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!

Starbucks, scanner and checklist in tow!

This is why I'm marrying him :) (One of the many reasons)

Ok ok, I gave in on a few things. 

All in all it was another fun weekend in San Antonio full of wedding planning, celebrating mother's day and plenty of memories!