Save-the-Dates

183 Save-the-Dates are stuffed, addresses, sealed and stamped... Ready to go out!  I couldn't imagine doing this and working right now....

Engagement Party

We were so lucky to have Gill's family and friends through us an engagment party in St. Francisville.  The party was at Aunt Linda and Randy's house.  There was a huge spread of food and drinks and the band was great.  The first hour of the party, the band didn't play, which gave us a chance to visit with our guests.

I didn't take many pictures during the party, but Aunt Lynda was there to capture every moment.  I am sure there will be another post with her pictures.

It was so hot, but they had several tents, lots of fans, and LOTS of cold beverages to help keep us cool.  We had been outside for a while before we took some family pictures... so Gill was a little hot and sweaty.

Gill and his family love to dance and one of my favorite things is to watch him and his mom dance.  They have so much fun together.

We had a great time and I can't wait to see the pictures that Aunt Lynda took.

I wanted to include a picture of our wedding book.  I am absolutely love it.

We also went into Baton Rouge to meet with some florists about the flowers for the wedding.  And we met our fabulous florist, RJ Coco, at Billy Heroman's.  He picked right up on the look I was going for and was able to run with.  Two hours later we had everything planned out.  We are using ranunculus, hydrangea, roses, curly willow and green berries.  All the flowers will be ivory and in various states of bloom.  The wedding plans are definitely all coming together.

I am finishing up addressing the Save-the-Dates and they will go out this week.  I will post a picture of them after everyone has had a chance to receive them.

Weekend Fun!

We didn't really have any set plans going into this weeked.  We met Daniel and Jeremy at Portico for dinner Friday night.  It was so crowded we ran into lots of friends in town for David's wedding.  It was such a great surprise!

For some reason, during dinner we got a wild idea to go to Shreveport.  It was definitely too late to head over, but we did anyway.

We stopped at a gas station on the way over and Jeremy and I decided we needed cowboy hats!

We had such a great time and I am glad we decided to be spontaneous and go.  We stopped and ate at Waffle House before we finally got back to Gill's house around 4:30.  We are definitely too old to do that anytime soon again!

Gill and I came back to Ruston with Jeremy and Daniel Saturday morning.  We took a nap and went to Cane's for lunch.  We went and spent the afternoon with my mom and Gill took another two hour nap... he couldn't handle his late night!

Saturday night, we went to watch Jeremy race.  I have watched Jermey race since high school and I am glad that Gill enjoys going with me.

Here is our favorite race car driver and his car!

Here is Jeremy in the heat race... his tires were off the ground!

Jeremy did so good!  He got second in his heat race and then went back to the pit to make some adjustments to his car.  It amazes me how he can know how change all these things to make his race car better for how the track is running.

He took his tires off and grinded them down to get fresh rubber on them.

Jermey got second place in the feature raceand did so good.  It was a long race with lots of cautions. I am convinced that I am bad luck because I think wins every race that I am NOT there.

After the feature race... you can see how dusty it is at the races in this picture.  You can not escape the dust and dirt anywhere.  Nasty. (That is dust flying through the air, not stuck to the lens of my camera.)

We slept late Sunday morning, I got up about an hour before Gill and cooked Mexican breakfast.  My family eats this every Christmas morning.  Barkley had gotten Gill a card for Father's Day :).

Dresses...

On Saturday, Mama, Teresa, LeeAnn and I left about 6:30 driving to Brookhaven, MS to look at wedding dresses.  We had several friends tell us we had to visit Imiginations.  Mrs. Debbie drove up from St. Francisville and I was so excited that she wanted to spend the day with us.

I got car sick on the way down because Teresa drives like a bat out of hell, so I was a little subdued when my appointment started at 10:30.  We started with five dresses and I found one I liked, so we tried on a veil with it.  Walking back to my fitting, I saw one on a mannequin that I wanted to try on.  I tried it on and it definitely out did the first one.  I tried on one more after that, but I didn't even really care about it.  We put the other dress back on and changed a few things about it, and picked out a new veil.  I got measured and the dress was ordered by noon and we were done. 

We asked some of the staff for a good restaraunt and they let us know that Brookhaven was in a dry, so we drove about 30 minutes to McComb so we could have a drink for lunch.  I think finding a wedding dress was certainly a reason to celebrate.

We went back to Imiginations to look at bridesmaid dresses and I found one that I loved, but it didn't come in the color I wanted (a really deep, dark purple).  I kept looking but wasn't happy with any of the other choices.  I had LeeAnn try on the dress and I decided I had to have it.  This dress color is what I originally wanted, but I was worried about using a taupe in November, hence the deep purple, but I definitely think this is dark enough to work.  I love them. 

I am so glad the dresses are chosen and I don't have to worry about them any more.

Wedding Stationery!

I knew exactly what I wanted my wedding invitations like...  a heavy cream paper with a traditional black script.  No colors, no frills, just very traditional.  Who knew that I would have to go through about four different places before I found what I was looking for.  Everything is full of color and and very non-traditional.  Finally, I found Rhonda at The Paper Market in Monroe.  She is so helpful and had such great choices and ideas.  She even called a friend of hers who had just recently mailed out her daughter's invitations incuding all the same things we chose to check on the postage price.  We also found out her husband is a lawyer at the same firm as Uncle Bob!  We were able to get the invitations, RSVPs, direction cards, and the save-the-dates all picked out.

We designed a simple, traditional save-the-date and she sent me the proof today and the information for a calligrapher, if the one we plan to use doesn't work.  I am very pleased with the way they turned out.  Mama is going to pick them up tomorrow and I can't wait to see them.  Time to start addressing!

My First Graders!

I didn't do a very good job taking pictures of my class this year, but I found a few I wanted to share.  Even though they drove me crazy sometimes, I love these kids!  (That is half of my class!  I love teaching at a small school!)

This is one of my classroom,  I wish I had done a better job of documenting this school year!

Longview Wedding

Gill's friend from work, Charles, got married in Longview this weekend and Gill was a groomsman.  We made the trip over on Thursday for the rehearsal.  They got married at The Belgium House and the ceremony was outside.  The temperature was still in the 100's at the 5:00 rehearsal and it was pretty miserable.  They finished quickly and we all journeyed over to Olive Garden for dinner.  I had a great time and was excited to meet more of the people Gill works with.

This was us waiting to get in for the rehearsal.  The Belgium House has a gate to its drive and apparently the person that was supposed to come unlock forgot their job.  We just parked on the side of the road and waited.  While we waited, we watched the frustrated bride stomp up and down the drive way yelling and flailing her arms.  I'm sure I would have also been upset and I definitely felt for her, but it was quite fun to watch.

We left about 1:00 on Saturday to go over.  I planned on traveling in a sundress, but managed to spill something on myself on the way to Haughton, so I got to spend the rest of the day in my dress for the wedding.  We went and picked up the tuxes with the rest of the groomsmen.  The guys were great letting me crash their boy party.  I didn't catch any grief, except for the occasional "wolf pack" comment.  We had a late lunch at Cheddar's and then made our way to wedding. 

The room where the groomsmen dressed was decorated like a fifties dinner, it had a bar and jukebox in it.  This wedding and reception were dry, but Gill, of course, hauled his big ice chest into this gorgeous house.  (One of the bridesmaids actually got in trouble by the MOB for drinking a beer before the reception!)  Gill and the rest of the groomsmen drank during the reception, but were kind enough to drink out of glasses instead of bottles!