Here we are, Tony and I have already been engaged for 4 months (and 2 days)! Month 1 was full of excited emotion, Month 2 was busy busy busy, Month 3 was lots of wedding planning, and Month 4 was lots of fun! And lots of photos!
In our fourth month of being engaged, Tony and I have….
–Visited Lake Junaluska and Apple Hill Farms with all of our parents—first time that Tony’s family has seen our wedding sites! (They approved.)
–I SAID YES TO THE DRESS!!!!!! I went wedding dress shopping with my mom, my lifelong friend (and bridesmaid/matchmaker) Robyn, and my sweet work friends Kim and Erica. The Dress was the first one I tried on! It was also one of the photos that I brought with me from my magazine and online searches, AND it was hanging on a mannequin when my mom and Robyn got to Dimitra Designs, and Robyn said “I love that dress—it looks like Amy!” Meant to be?? Finding The Dress was everything I dreamed it would be, except quicker. 🙂 We had champagne and snacks and girl talk, we picked out tons of gowns for me to try, and everyone cried when we realized this was “the one.” It was perfect! (Of course I freaked out a week later wondering if Tony would like The Dress, if it was timeless enough, if it was blah blah blah, but Robyn reassured me that Tony will have the same reaction that they all had when they saw me in it. *Breathe.*) Spoiler alert: There’s a pic below of me in The Dress….
(Come on, you didn’t think I’d actually show it to you, did you? To be fair, however, I AM actually wearing The Dress in the bottom left picture…not that you can see it. 😉 )
–We celebrated Tony’s birthday! (Last one in his 30s!) My mom is super excited that she can re-use these candles every year on HER birthday 😉 . I also had the honor of being entrusted with the Traditional Gairns-Keely-Sokol Birthday Breakfast. Tony’s mom passed down their family recipe for Moravian Sugar Cake (which ironically, I also grew up eating!), and I prepared it for Tony’s birthday breakfast, er, brunch. Mighty tasty, if I do say so myself!
–Tony and I spent 5 days just relaxing and being together at Litchfield Beach. It was so nice to get away from work, appointments, To Do Lists, and technology for a few days and just hang out, just us. We snacked on cheese, bruschetta, wine and prosecco on the balcony; played bocce ball on the beach every day; found out what happens when you throw seagulls an entire piece of bread (it.is.awesome. and good for at least an hour’s entertainment); watched the sunset from the Skywheel in Myrtle Beach (one and only time…Mr. K doesn’t like heights); and ate lots of brunches and lot of crab legs. Loved every minute of it!
–We had dinner with Tony’s family to celebrate his and his brother’s birthdays. We had homemade onion rings, birthday cake, and laughed til we had tears in our eyes. 😉
–We met with ANOTHER florist and an invitation designer. BOTH of them randomly had ideas about burlap + lace, which I had just pinned on Pinterest (major new addiction). It is crazy how things work out….
–We moved our traditional Saturday Afternoon Date in the Park to the Carolina Alehouse. It is football season, after all.
–We picnicked with The Cliftons (my dad’s family) at Landsford Canal State Park. A fun fall day with my sweet and crazy family. In the pics below, from top to bottom: 1) While I was taking a picture of my parents, they said “Tony, come on and get in this picture with us!” Uh, hello, what about me?? My mom also cooks this lemon cake that Tony likes (in the bday picture above), and she doesn’t usually cook anything for anybody. I guess he’s the favorite now! 😉 2) My dad’s siblings. 3) Me and two of my cousins—and bridesmaids!
–We rented the movie “Bridesmaids” and nearly died of laughter during the dress shopping scene. Seriously, if you could die laughing I think it would’ve happened. We rewound that scene no less than 7 times.
–We hired our DJ! We’re excited that Blake from Jumping Jukebox is going to keep our reception rocking!
–We celebrated our 1-year dating anniversary by picking apples at Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock. Sky Top was one of our first dates last year! It is crazy to think that on October 8, 2010 we were just going about our business same as always, and then on October 9th I sent Tony a random text (“Are you going to be out tonight?”) that changed our lives forever. Who knew that closing down the bar at Smiley’s after Fall for Greenville would lead us to THIS?? I can guarantee you that we would’ve both called b-s if anyone had told us that night that a year from then we would be planning our wedding!
Back to Sky Top, you’ll see this bushel of apples again at our wedding! Tony worked hard climbing trees to pick the perfect mix of Galas and Granny Smiths, and then he worked even harder pulling that wagon waaaaaaaaaaaay up the hill!
–We went pumpkin pickin’ at Nivens Farms with our Matchmakers Robyn and Burton, and our too-stinkin-cute Flower Girl Ella Jane. We love this little girl!
–We spent our 4-months engagement anniversary at Fall for Greenville with friends…which was the occasion for us getting [back] together last October. Interestingly enough, when we met up last year, the last time I had seen Tony was Fall for Greenville the year before!
Whew, such a fun month! I am grateful every day for the love that Tony and I share and for just how right we are for one another. I’m a lucky girl! (And yes–he’s a lucky guy.) Hehe.
Love to you all,
A+T
