will you be my bridesmaid?

after the news of our engagement had been disclosed to everyone, i of course had to "formally" ask my dearest friends to be a part of our big day. (i say "formally" because a muffled, snotty, sobbing "wi-ill y--oouu b-bee-ee in-n myyy--yy ww-wwedd-dding" just doesn't cut it in my book.) 


it was october, and caramel apples had been consuming my thoughts because every time i walked in publix there were these juicy green apples glaring at me with mounds of bags of caramel cubes just waiting to be melted on the apples sitting right next to them. sticks and all. it was too easy. so, bridesmaids, you get caramel apples!


but not just any caramel apple! i added a few special touches for (more than a few) special girls! 

i used lollipop sticks because they were white and i thought prettier than the popsicle sticks that publix had... 

after i had dunked them in caramel and let them dry, i drizzled melted white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate over the caramel. (*tip: do not, i repeat, DO NOT, let water come into contact with your chocolate. it does not make it thinner despite what you may think. it thickens it into an almost batter-like substance and becomes a quite frustrating science experiment.)

after the drizzle comes the sprinkling. i crushed up reese's pieces and had heath toffee bits for mine. i've seen some really cute ideas to decorate such as, lining up whole reese's pieces around the entire apple for a colorful, fallish design. using crushed pecans or peanuts would work well too. i say you can't ever have too many toppings so, pile them on! i'm pretty sure that after the sprinkling, we had another drizzle session. like i said, no such thing as too much in this business!

i got cute cardstock tags and some rope to wrap up the apples. i wrote each bridesmaid's name on the tag and tied it around a clear, celophane bag with some ribbon. so simple, and so cute!

taaa daaa!

i was pretty impressed with the outcome. after a (long) night of dipping pretzels in chocolate and covering with metallic gold sprinkles and edible pearls for the engagement party, kensey and i decided that a delicious treat boutique would be the perfect business for us to go into! pictures of the pretzels will come later!

i do have the best bridesmaids ever and they deserve way more than a caramel-chocolate-candy-covered apple, but i thought this would be a "sweet" way for me to invite them to be a part of such a special day for me. they all mean the world to me and i don't know how i would have come this far without each and every one of them. i have experienced so much with these girls, with each something different than the other, but all experiences equally valuable in my course of life. they will never understand how truly special they are. i should probably name them all, right? it might take a little bit. 

maid of honor : ann elizabeth davis. the most precious, kind hearted individual to ever walk to planet. her strong sense of self distinguishes her from all the rest of the world. she inspires me to be comfortable in my own skin, not worrying about the opinions of other people. i couldn't be luckier to have her as a sister. god really knew what he was doing when he put her in my life. (i also happen to know what a good helper she is when it comes to things such as ohhh, planning a wedding, maybe?)

matron of honor : heather bellew. not just the groom's sister anymore! we've been sister's since the day we met. without her, i would fall to pieces. she spurs more ideas within me than she even knows. i feed off of her ideas and incredible doses of energy. she is my motivator. i would get nothing done without her. and i'm in love with her daughter, who is a living, breathing, duplicate of her mother.

matron of honor: lee griswold smith. you don't know someone until you live with them and i know more than anyone cares to know about this girl. (just kidding.) i often say she should have been born a boy, but my mind is changing as we grow a little older. she is a fabulous wifey to my future husband's best man. she is seriously the most beautiful person i know. and the best friend i could ever ask for. lee is the source of my sanity. when i'm worried, stressed, or anything else unpleasant i go to her before anyone because she knows what i need. always. 

sarah dillard. best friends since grannie panties... and will be until we wear them again! no one can comprehend what this girl has been through in life, yet she continues to be the cheerful, fun-loving, wise, beautiful girl that i have always known. she knows what it means to be strong and i have nothing but admiration for her. we are rooted in the same beliefs, morals, and as some would call it "home training."  nothing can ever break the bond that locks us together! 

kensey robertson. i think it makes her mad that she is everyone's fashion go-to, but it's what she's good at. it is more than just a hobby or shopping addiction. it's a talent. i value her opinion more than anyone, and not just on the subject of fashion. just by being with her, she constantly reminds me that friends offer something that no one else can give and she has become one of my very best friends. she is one of the most real people i have ever known. she is the complete and total package and hasn't the slightest idea of it.

felicia franks. this friendship has a serious case of "i miss you." it hasn't been the same without her since she has moved back home. fe has been a mother duckling all of her life. i'm not sure that she would know what to do if she didn't have someone to take care of. she has one of the most caring hearts of anyone in the world. this is the girl that everyone wants to be friends with, because they know what a good friend she is. i'm pretty lucky that she's mine. 

alexandra mcgowin. i like to think we were the cool losers in middle school. we were both new kids on the block and had each other even if we didn't have anyone else. (i make it sound like we had no friends, haha.) we did have friends, but as for me, none that hold a candle to alex, especially today. i always say that we are the kind of friends that can go weeks, and in some cases months, without talking or seeing each other, but when we do, we just pick up where we left off like no time lapsed in between. even through our separate lives, and different friend circles, and busy schedules that don't mesh well at all most of the time, we have remained best friends and i am so very thankful for it. 

sarah mcallister phillips. oh, how i miss her! she's too far away and i cannot stand it! sometimes i just know that god looks at me and is like "i want you to be friends with her" or "i want you to know her," and that's how it was with sarah. god has blessed me with a grand group of friends throughout my life, but sometimes i think he knows when i need a special person to lift me up and sarah is that person. she is a lifter and a cheerer. i've never met a sweeter, more genuine person. even when she says something bad, it's not even bad. i strive to be more like her. i could use a bigger dose of cheer and nice in my  life on a daily basis, so i think it's time for her to move back to me!

lindsay jones. we are twins. i swear we are. except she's better. i feel like i've known lindsay my whole life. we've always been so comfortable with each other even when we had first met. i don't think there is a person on this earth that she couldn't get along with. she's tiny and funny and cuter than anything i've ever seen. and i seriously love her. she goes above and beyond to be a true friend and everyday i am thankful that she's mine!

brittany taylor. are there even any words for this girl? she is the ultimate girl friend. all about some planning, that's for sure. somehow i let her leave me to move back home to be with dennis and i'm not really sure what i've done without her. i know one thing. if she were in tuscaloosa, my save the dates would have gone in the mail months ago. seriously, britt has a heart of gold and i couldn't ask for a better friend. she is always doing for everyone else. going out of her way to make someone happy or feel extra special. she is extra special to me and i love her with my whole heart!

rosalyn bozeman mcdonald. one of a kind. never fails to make me laugh. i can't name all of the reasons, but rosalyn has been one of my most favorite people from the day i met her. she looks at life differently than anyone else on earth. and has the most precious baby on the planet. oh, what i would give to have that little man in my wedding. he's just too tiny, though! roe eases my mind. she knows what is important and doesn't let the rest of it bother her. she is honest and real and says what she thinks. i love her more than she knows and am jealous of my other friends that get to hang out with her on a regular basis. 

andrea lynn cantrell. she knows what it means to make the best of it. i admire her for so many reasons. of all of my bridesmaids, i think she and rosalyn are the only ones that i would consider WOMEN. we have a discussion all the time about when a girl becomes a woman. roe has been one since she was like 5. lee is getting there. but andrea has earned it! i've never seen a person fall into motherhood and responsibility as gracefully as she did. and now little anna claire can't get here soon enough! she has raised one of the smartest, funniest, and most perfect little boys i've ever laid eyes on. so perfect that he will be my little ring bearer! i'm so proud of andrea for working so hard at life. she is super special to me and i couldn't be happier to call her my friend. 

now. attention all bridesmaids. if you don't already know how special you are to me, starting in a few weeks (exactly 13 weeks before the wedding) i am going to dedicate a week to each of you! so, look forward to being the BOW! surprises will be involved. (small surprises. i'm broke.)

i love you all!

better late than never...

if you know anything about nick and i, then you obviously know we are engaged! and so incredibly excited about it. and i feel pretty guilty that i haven't honored the occasion with a blog post until now. but i guess it's better late than never, and again, if you know me, you know i'm never on time about anything. a fabulous flaw of mine. 

funny story. thursday, october 14th, i left work early feeling oh so terrible. i called nick crying on my way home blubbering about how terrible i felt and i just didn't know what i was going to do about it. (i'm not very good at being sick.) this phone call was followed with a phone call to my dearest mother who promptly left work to drive an hour to go with me to the doctor and take care of me. after a couple of shots and some much needed rest i felt much better but still not 100 percent. 

in the mean time, i was getting a little upset that every time i had talked to nick, he seemed much more concerned about our date friday night than how i felt. i was excited to celebrate our lucky number 7 year anniversary as well, but if i'm sick, i'm sick. 

anyway. i did start feeling a lot better and friday we got to go on our date. kensey and i went to bobbi brown so sweet katie could do our makeup (for no particular reason...i had booked us appointments months before for their grand opening. complete coincidence that it happened to be the same night that i would be receiving a new piece of fabulous jewelry.) and then kensey proceeded to talk me out of getting a manicure. she thought i knew what was going on and was trying to throw me off, but i was just really in need of some nail care. 

there are so many details to this story about how i could not have been more complicated about the entire night, but i'm sure most of you know these details and would rather see the pictures. (i like to look at pictures a lot more than i like to read.) so from now on only captions!

after a lovely dinner at desperado's (i've already forgotten what i ate, which makes me sad, because this blog is supposed to remember the memories that i forget) nick insisted that we go back to my house. i didn't completely understand it, but went along with it after a few annoying questions of why we weren't going to his house to see everyone. i was on the phone with alex when we were walking in the door and immediately saw flower petals (dispersed by sweet baby ava, our flower girl to be) from the doorway to the screened in porch. i think i kind of hung up on her. and i think this is when i started crying.

there were candles everywhere and the sweetest, sweetest powerpoint of all of our years together. i was still crying. the last picture was nick, on one knee, with an open ring box in his hand. i cried harder. and said yes, maybe just nodded because i'm pretty sure words weren't possible at this point. and nick just kind of sat there and maybe cried a little bit with me. (if i'm telling the story, he did. if he's telling the story, he would probably leave that part out. he would probably leave lots of parts out. storytelling is not his forte.) and then i might have asked where the ring was... because i didn't see it anywhere and i needed something to seal the deal! he put my gorgeous ring on my finger and then i cried some more. 

i never did really get it together after that. i cried all night, even after i had made phone calls and we were in the midst of celebrating with everyone. mom, heather, bobby, and ava had been riding around the neighborhood while all of the proposing was going on. they were in charge of setting everything up for nick. it couldn't have been more perfect!

so overwhelmed that i had to take a sit to call mom (mainly to tell her it was ok to come home.) see the mascara? i'm telling you. lots of crying. we finally made it to nick's to celebrate. kensey and chase brought over the cutest bottle of wine with a picture of nick and i on the label. always going above and beyond, that girl! at nick's we celebrated with champagne and i had another cry fest when lindsey and micah surprised me all the way from decatur!

precious heather came with cupcakes! already going above and beyond her MOH duties!

hugs for the groom

hey, flower girl! 

nick and i are so, so blessed to have each other. it's been a long time coming for us, but i couldn't have been more surprised about the entire night or impressed with his thoughtfulness. everything about it was perfect. even after 7 years, i can't imagine loving anyone more or spending the rest of my life any other way than with nick. 

so save the date! may 21, 2011. (by the way, save the dates are another blog post all of their own. i swear they are coming, people.)

lots has happened since this night, especially in the wedding planning department. be expecting more exciting posts to follow!