Trash the Dress?

What are your thoughts on trash the dress sessions?! I have one opinion...I want one! I want to get all messy in my dress and take hot, steamy pictures with Jason in his suit - the kind you can't take in the 45 minutes between the ceremony and the reception with your entire family and wedding party around. I want to put on some bright colored pumps and a hot pair of sunglasses, vamp up the make-up and just have fun with it! Here are some of my favorite TTD pics. Enjoy!






And check this out...


...further proof that Stephanie really knows her stuff! Can't wait for post-wedding photo sesh fun!

Here's to Happiness

One of my most favorite things to do (especially on a Monday morning...) is read people's happy lists. Rockstar Diaries frequently serves up top-10's that never fail to pull the corners of my mouth up regardless of where or when I read them. It's Monday and both my home and work to-do lists are getting a little scary. I couldn't think of a better time to document my own happy list...

Rebecca's list of 10 things that make her *incredibly happy*

1. the sound of my niece laughing
2. brightly colored furniture
3. the smell of an oncoming thunderstorm
4. falling asleep with my head nestled between jason's shoulder blades
5. pictures of people in love
6. a cold shower after a hard, sweaty workout
7. getting flowers unexpectedly
8. writing my name with jason's last name
9. laughing so hard you cry
10. carrot cinnamon bittycakes

Passion

I woke up early enough to walk Jonas this morning. I thoroughly enjoy the mornings I drag my butt out of bed early enough to take him for a walk. He's a good dog to walk - minus his unreasonable and exaggerated fear of storm drains. I could walk him for hours if I had the time. The sweet smells of springtime permeate my thoughts and my mind wanders aimlessly. If I can't spend the morning tangled up with Jason, I'd chose to spend it walking Jonas. I always smile when I pass the obnoxiously bright turquoise Adirondack chairs down the street and seeing the purple and gold flowers planted in the neighboring apartment complex takes me back to a place where springtime flowers were synonymous with perfection. A former teammate of mine, Allison Keel, captured the true beauty of a JMU springtime on her blog. Check them out here...

And on the topic of amazing photography, I was gifted yesterday with a peek into the world of Pat Dy . As a wedding and fashion photographer, I spent an entire hour combing through his website and oogling at the breathtaking skill he has behind a camera lens. People have got to be born with that kind of talent. He shot engagement pictures for a Parisan couple. Two beautiful people + one gifted photographer + the streets of Paris = perfection. It was hard to pick a favorite, but I could almost feel the passion behind the picture below jumping out at me from the computer screen. I felt like I was peeking into a really personal and private moment between the two of them - but it left me feeling overwhelmed with my own personal happiness.



And on that note, check out the poem Le Love posted on her blog earlier this week titled "i want." It makes me fall in love with being in love every single time I read it.

Happy Friday!

Something Blue?

Inspired by The Unbride's fashionista Friday from last week - I have been giving a little thought to the whole "something old, something new..." thing. More specifically, something blue! Her post of several fabulous options for this part allowed me to feast my eyes on the likes of these lovelies:

Blue pumps - sheer genius. My dress is long anyways, and how fun would it be walking down the aisle knowing I have a pair of kick ass heels underneath that gorgeous satin gown? I'll have Nana's pearls around my neck and a stunning pop of color just waiting to make a guest appearance!

I found these on Aldo's website...who says keeping with tradition can't be fun?

What is real?

From "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Shameless

Here are a few of the amazing pictures that photographer Stephanie Mosher took of Jason and I at the Duke Gardens in Durham, NC for our engagement session. You can see more on her blog if you're interested! Jason and I had such a great time working with her - we had *perfect* weather and it was so much fun! Cheeks were a little sore - but I think Stephanie did a fantastic job capturing the essence of our relationship. I can't wait for her to work her magic at our wedding!

Recently, 'Mad World' by Gary Jules came on my radio station on Pandora - made me think of Donnie Darko - anyone remember that movie?? Erica, my roommate freshman year of college, and I LOVED it. Netflix queue? We'll see! :)

Creative ADD?

Does this exist? I fully intended on getting into more detail about the other things I have learned since I've moved to Raleigh - I thought they were pretty insightful and worth elaborating on. However, 4 days removed, I look back at my list and think they are rather generic and lame. Maybe I should have gotten all my thoughts down on Monday? I find I have this problem with a lot of my creative endeavors. I get great ideas swimming in my head and get excited to see them through, and then I get bored with them. If the time to fully pursue my ideas doesn't present itself at the precise moment that they are bewing inside my head, it's almost a lost cause.

Scrapbooking is a perfect example. I have wanted to get into scrapbooking for months, years even. I'd love to have the events of my life documented by printed photos creatively laid out on patterned paper and my poor excuse for a humorous explanation or some badly chosen quote written below to tie it all together. No really, I would. But I get bored with that idea before I find the time (and the money) to get to the store to buy the necessary supplies.

I thought blogging might be better. Apparently not. I will complete my list briefly, and perhaps the next time I get the desire to write and have nothing particulary interesting to ramble about, I'll come back to the list and elaborate. Without further ado (as I know so many people were waiting with much anticipation):

3. Social media marketing, social networking - all extremely fascinating! There is so much out there to read about and to learn. Here's a list of some social media blogs I try to check from time to time.

4. Tofu BBQ is f'ing amazing!! Brooks gave us a holiday present in the form of gift cards to The Pit, a BBQ restaurant downtown. I went with some of the girls from work for Victoria's birthday. V is vegan (in addition to being awesome) - and lemme tell you, she makes some kickass raw tiramisu! But I digress...in addition to trying Bells beer for the first time and L-O-V-I-N-G it, I was privilidged to get a bite of V's tofu BBQ. Oh. My. God. It tasted juuuust like BBQ chicken! It blew my mind. (I have also become extremely dependent on my Morning Star Farms maple flavored veggie sausage patties for breakfast...which are apparently now available at Helio's on their kick ass bagel sandwiches. My mornings may never be the same again...)

5. I have books on my "to-read" list that aren't by Malcolm Gladwell, David Sedaris, or about vampires. Although, as my list was created on Monday, this has since changed after watching a talk with Malcolm Gladwell from 2004'sTED Conference on spaghetti sauce (Watch the talk here...) this morning in class. Gladwell's book Outliers has now rapidly been moved from a book I "will read at some point" to the book I plan on going and buying on my way home from work today.

6. ACC Basketball is a BIG deal. I live in the Triangle of North Carolina, I'm not sure I need to elaborate much more. Go 'Heels!

7. It's much harder to make friends as an adult than it was as a child. I always considered myself a social person and I always found it easy to make friends. I guess before I moved to a brand new city where the only person I knew was the person I was moving for. It's not like college and not even like my last company where there were 10 other new people that started within the same month or 2 as me. Don't get me wrong, I have some friends here. And I'm lucky that the 20-person company I work for is comprised of 20 people I enjoy spending time with - over 1/2 price martinis at Boggarts or at late-night McDonalds runs or onnnneee too many vodka-cran's at Lynwood Grill. Just as a general statement - it hasn't been the 'walk in the park' I imagined it would be to find my niche here.

8. Gold's Gym rocks. I never believed the hype, but good god that place is amazing. The classes are tough, there are always machines available no matter how busy it is, and I especially enjoy watching Little Miss Sunshine while elliptical-ing it up.

9. Life moves fast. I didn't think the day would come where a new dish rack and pizza stone would make me insanely happy! The day has come. Not much gets me smiling like the smell of chili cooking all day, filling my wine rack and then depleting it (repeat, repeat, repeat...), and taking a long walk with the dogs and Jason. Not to mention I'm getting MARRIED. Settling down? Eh - I'd prefer to call it 'calming down,' I've got more than enough spice left.

******

Currently listening to 'Everything'll Be Alright' by Joshua Radin. All week I've been addicted to my Ryan Adams station on Pandora...still in much anticipation for my PINK-infused, shopping and sushi-fest of a weekend with 2 of my best friends in Richmond coming up. The sun's out and it may be about 60 in Raleigh, I'm in a skirt and my "summer jean jacket" and I'm happy.

I also joined Twitter this week - it has been everything and nothing like what I anticipated. :)