Bachelorette fun!

I knew that by having a few bridesmaids out of town...as well as myself, I would need to be an efficient planner, so I held my Bachelorette Party the night after my shower. We had so much fun, we stayed in two suites in a hotel in downtown, St. Louis that had a beautiful view of the Arch, ate dinner at Mizu, my favorite sushi place in St. Louis, then went to Club 15 to dance and have fun since we had some younger than 21 in the wedding party and could only get in to 18 and up places. One minor complaint, the DJ would not play Shake your Tailfeather by Nelly for us and it was all we wanted to hear.

found the dress and shoes at Charlotte Russe.

Pretty pink nails and toes ready for a night out!

Me with Libby and Tammy before we got ready for our night out on the town.

garters are on...good thing I was packing, it was also the St. Louis Gun Show downtown.

Some of us girls getting ready to head down to the lobby to hail a cab to dinner at Mizu.

My Aunt's made me my Last Night Out cake with fun Barbie...a Pinterest inspired cake.

My cake was perfect!

Typical bachelorette party straw picture

My two Aunts (who made the Barbie cake) and Summer provided the Boobie Mobile to drive us to Club 15...this caught a lot of attention with street walkers and drivers.

Tri Delta Lovin!

Dancing machines...to everything but our Nelly request.

Cheerbox photo with Stephanie and Stacy

Sitting in VIP resting our feet

April Shower

When I first got engaged, the shower was discussed. I said I would like to only have one, invite everyone and not have to worry about 3 different weekends of showers (I was also working with the 10 other weddings, showers and bachelorette party's I would be attending). Our shower was held at Jeff's family's church, it was large enough to hold a lot of people, so we didn't have to have multiple showers, making it easier on everyone.

A huge thank you to Judy Smith who lead the planning of the cutest shower for me. Judy had quite a few helpers from the church, all the ladies were very much appreciated by our families. She found some cute cherry blossom plates and napkins to make my pink, brown and cream theme stay true at the shower. She had someone make oreo balls, which she didn't realize, I'm a cake ball queen and very much appreciated the little gesture. she also had the large jugs with pink lemonade as the refreshment. Pictured Below is Jeff's mom, Fran, My mom, Kelly, Judy and me

Cute drink station

Guests at the shower

Opening one of my favorite gifts, my PINK mixer, which was from Judy and ladies who helped with my shower from the church.

Me and my sister, maid of honor

Some of my bridesmaids...a few are missing, I had 10 total.

Me and my groom, Jeff

Relocation again?

Yes, so as one might assume it is stressful when you are engaged, planning a wedding, live 2 hours from your family who is helping you plan a wedding, have new jobs, very few friends in a new city...oh and decide to buy a house after being in the new city for 6 months. Yep, we decided to give up the renting life and put down some roots somewhere and actually pay for something we can paint, hang pictures wherever we want and LIVE in. So we did some searching in Columbia, Ashland and Jeff City for our first major purchase together. We decided to choose a charming house that was built in 1928 and is one of the most popular streets in Jeff City.

First Time Home Buyers!

Wedding Party Attire

Back in January I headed off with one of my bridesmaids to visit every craft store in Columbia that sells fabric. Luckily after going into Hobby Lobby, we found the perfect fabric, a light pink and brown paisley fabric.

The goal is to have each girl select a different style pattern to look good with their body type in this fabric. We hired a seamstress and began the process. We also decided the guys would have vests made to match the dresses. Girls will wear a brown belt and boots with their dresses while the guys wear a tan button up, paisley vest, jeans and brown belt and boots.

Enjoy the previews, I can't wait for the big day to see everyone looking fabulous in Pink Paisley...which I recently discovered is a popular trend for spring and summer this year! I love being ahead of the trends!

Flowers and BBQ

While out in Columbia, we have been doing some planning from a distance trying to coordinate times to meet with a florist, caterer, decide on centerpieces and get dresses and vests made for the wedding party. So when I'm in Hillsboro for the weekend, I take full advantage of wedding planning time with my mom.

During my birthday weekend we went to Drummond Florist in Desoto, and picked out the bridesmaid bouquets and some flowers for the centerpieces. Here is the inspiration

My bouquet is going to be a brooch bouquet like Miranda Lambert's bouquet, my mom and her friend Holly are making it for me.

The boutonniere's will be made of cotton bolls, wheat and jute. I am making them myself :)
Here is the cotton boll

While we were at the florist, our caterer dropped off the bbq to sample. We will be having Pulled Pork from King Daddy's Catering. It is the best pulled pork I have ever had.

We then hit up hobby lobby to look for unique centerpiece ideas, to give the reception a very vintage/country feel.

I can't wait to see everything come together!