Bridal Portriats

They're back! Here are a few of my faves. I plan to do an 8x10 print on the welcome table at the reception. Out of these, which one do you think I should display?

Groom's Gift-Sssssh...Top Secret!

 OMG, the good things just keep coming for us!  I've been racking my brain to get something special for Justin for the wedding.  In general, guys are hard to shop for.  But for me, it’s especially hard.  I don’t have any brothers so I’m not sure what to get when it comes to guys gifts, and Justin usually gets things for himself as he wants them so there normally isn’t anything that he wants and doesn’t have …unless it’s around Christmas or his birthday and his mom and I are both saying months in advance “you aren’t allowed to buy anything until after the holiday is over”. 

Justin isn’t much of a reader, but he’s been doing more since we’ve been together.  This year alone, he’s read at least 6 books.  That’s a record!  He really got into the Monkeewrench series by PJ Tracy.  He has all the books except for the last one that came out in May Shoot to Thrill.  He has read it and loved it (checked it out for him at the library) but he still hasn’t purchased it for himself.  So my wheels started turning….what if I could track down a signed copy for him?  I went to the author’s website http://www.pjtracy.net/content/index.asp to see if their book tour for their new release would be coming to Dallas soon.  I discovered that they were only touring in Minnesota.  “That’s ok” I said.  “I’ll email them to see how I could buy a signed copy from them.”  Here is my email to them (PJ Tracy is a mother daughter duo author team):

“PJ and Traci,

 I wish I could start off by saying how much I love your books, but I’ve never read them.  I hear wonderful things from my fiancé, Justin, about them, though.  I’m an avid reader but haven’t been able to read much in the past year due to never ending wedding planning!  Justin, not much of a reader has read about 6 books already this year!  He has by far exceeded his total from last year already and it’s all thanks to you two wonderful authors!  He picked up Monkeewrench at the beginning of the year and couldn’t put it down.  It can literally take him a year to finish a 300 page book, but he sailed through Monkeewrench in no time.  He told me all about the copy cat game killings and the twist at the end when the killer was someone’s wife.  Every night after he would read, he would have to update me on what he had learned about the story.  Immediately, he bought Live Bait and Dead Run.  You can’t imagine how thrilled I was that he was reading!  When he wrapped those up, he read Snow Blind.  I remember him gasping one night because he had just read the part where the dead body had been disguised as a snowman!  After finishing the 4^th book, he still couldn’t get enough.  He was so excited when he found out there was a 5^th book!  I requested it from the library (he can’t because he doesn’t have a card, ha ha) and he read it during the 3 week check out period.  This was in record time for him! 

We are getting married on July 17^th and I would really love to give him a signed copy of Shoot to Thrill as a wedding present to complete his series collection.  I noticed on your website that you are only touring in Minnesota.  I live in Dallas, Texas and I was wondering if you had plans to make a stop down this way any time soon?  If not, is there some way that I can buy a signed copy from you?  He would just love it and would be genuinely surprised, not to mention how appreciative he would be!   I really would love to do this for him and hope there is a way to do so!

Thanks in advance for your help!  And as soon as the wedding is over, I’m going to jump on the Monkeewrench bandwagon myself!  I can’t wait to discover how wonderful the series is just like Justin has!

 Sincerely,

Jordan Smith”

A little time went by and I thought that my email had gone into PJ Tracy’s spam folder.  I started looking on ebay for signed books when I received this back from them:

“Dear Jordan,

Hi from PJ Tracy, and congratulations on your upcoming wedding!  You must be so excited (and so over-worked!)

We are thrilled to hear that Justin has enjoyed the MONKEEWRENCH series so much -- we work for our readers, and our goal is to give them the entertainment they deserve, so there's nothing better for us than hearing that we're doing our job.  And book #6 is in progress, so we might just have to have Jordan and Justin characters, if you have no objection.  Both great names we haven't used yet!

Please give us an address, and we will send you a signed copy of SHOOT TO THRILL -- a wedding gift from us.  Is there anything special you would like us to say?  Of course, we'll personalize it ourselves as well, in honor of your very special occasion. 

Best of luck to you!  Just remember to relax and take time for yourself during these next few weeks and know that everything will go off without a hitch.  And if there is a hitch, it will just become a humorous anecdote that you can share with your children and grand children! 

All best wishes to you both for a happy, healthy, beautiful future together,
PJ and T
p.s. feel free to send emails to my personal account, which I retrieve daily.”

Aaaahhhh! I was so excited to get this email!  I couldn’t believe it!  Not only were they agreeing to work with me on getting a signed copy, they are personalizing the message AND giving it to us!  I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself.  I’m so excited to give it to him!  It’s so hard not to tell him about it now, but it’s for our wedding day so I’ll have to share my excitement with all of you for the next few weeks!  Cross your fingers that I get it in time!

Corsicana Shower

About a month ago, my sisters, mom and cousins threw a bridal shower for me in Corsicana for all my hometown folks.  I just got the pictures back from them...sorry about the long wait!

Here I am with all the hostesses! Cousin Kathleen, Em, Casie, Me, Cousin Laura, and Johnna.

We had some delicious food.  My favorite was the cherry tomatoes with mozzarella and basil.  It was so good!  We also had fruit, pinwheels, veggies, butter cake with cool whip and strawberries, spinach dip and crackers.

After we ate, we played a few games.  Here are my friends looking at pictures of me of every year of my life and trying to put them in order.

 When it was time to reveal the answers, I held the posters up so everyone could see the progression of my aging. ;)  We then moved on to the next game...create a bride out of toilet paper!

This game was fun!  We split up into teams and made it a contest.  You can see my team working above!

Here is the second team trying to out do us!

Here are the finished brides!  Jennifer, the one on the left won!

We played one more game before we opened gifts.  It was a game to see how well my friends knew me.

 

 My cousins Virginia and Genevieve won this game!

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Now it was time to open gifts!  I started off with my grandma, Me Me.  She gave us our master bath rugs, passed down a cake plate with dome that my mother had given her, and a dutch oven!

Katy and Melba gave us our tea goblets, juice glasses, and electric griddle.

My Auntie(grandma's sister) has always hand made me things for as long as I can remember for all sorts of occasions.  Here, I am opening some pillow cases that she hand embroidered for us.  It made me cry!  First time in front of people during this entire wedding process (I think).

The Powell's gave us our toaster and blender!

My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Johnny gave us our digital photo frame and sheets for the guest bedroom.

Virginia and Genevieve  coordinated their gifts.  Trifle bowl with 8 mini trifle bowls to match.  We are using both of these for the reception!

 

 My Aunt Reva gave us ALL our silverware!  Everyone said "ooh!" when I pulled them out of the bag.

Robyn and Shelley gave us a knife set.  I had to buy them from them because it's bad luck to accept knives as a gift....old wives tale.

Em and Johnna gave us white sugar bowl, creamer, and butter dish.  I've needed a sugar bowl for a long ,long time!

 We got our yellow dot glasses to match our kitchen!  Thanks Barbara!

My other grandma, Ma Ma, gave us our food processor and the rugs for the guest bathroom!

My sister, Casie, gave us a bag of goodies.  In it was a bathroom wall shelf, pitcher, among other things!

My parents gave us most of our kitchen stuff...all 2 sets of dishes, dish rags and towels, cookie jar, glasses, utensil holder, oven mits, paper towel holder, and probably a lot of other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head.  I was so glad to get it!  If you don't remember what the kitchen will look like, check it out here.

Last but not least, the hostesses gave me a little gift.  It is a 2 container beverage dispenser.  Andrea used this when she threw the Aubrey shower.  I loved it so much that they got me one of my own!  Thanks girls!

A family shot after the festivity was over.

Mock Guest Tables

To save time and create less chaos on the wedding day while we are decorating, I'm creating "mock tables" to use as guides and written instructions to help explain how every table needs to be laid out.  Here's a sneak peek of the way the guest tables are going to look (minus the table cloths and burlap table runners).  I think it's all coming together nicely and turning out really, really pretty!

What do you do with all those bows from wedding showers?

You make a rehearsal bouquet!  Grace told me about this.  I've never been involved with a wedding rehearsal before (well, once when I was 5 but I don't remember it!) so I had no idea about the bow bouquet.  Here's what I came up with....

Pretty snazzy, huh?