apartment hunting in Pittsburgh

Two weeks ago, Jon and I took our first trip to Pittsburgh to go apartment hunting! We flew out of RDU on Sunday, and after a stopover in Atlanta, we arrived in Pittsburgh that afternoon. After picking up our rental car, we drove to the Wyndham in downtown Pittsburgh. The airport is actually very close to where we looked for apartments, but we decided to stay downtown so we could learn a little about that area as well.

We were quickly surprised to see that Pittsburgh is very hilly and you can even see the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in the distance! Driving around felt a lot like driving around Asheville to me. (Not as much to Jon since he grew up there.) We were also surprised to see that their main interstate has only two lanes going each direction. We are so used to I-40 with five and six lanes on each side. This highway led us into a tunnel, and when we came out, bam – there was downtown! Jon and I were both in awe for a minute. The buildings, river, and several bridges spanned our view. As our realtor told us the next day, “Pittsburgh is the only city that has its own entrance!”

That night we had a hard time finding a place to eat. We tried going somewhere within walking distance, but the downtown area was so dead. We found we had this great view of PNC park directly to the left of our hotel, though:

We ended up driving back across the river and going to Hard Rock Cafe because Jon had never been. Here was our view of downtown from the other side:

The next day our Dwellworks consultant, Jill, picked us up and we began our hunt. She had four places picked out that fit the criteria we had given her (a 2-bed/2 bath, within 30 minutes of the Eaton office, in a safe place, etc.) She had a few more places for us to look at on our own the next day, but she had not been able to get in touch with anyone at those places and was not familiar with them. Unfortunately, the two complexes she thought we would like best out of the four she showed us did not have any availability at the moment. She told us from the beginning that the rental market in Pittsburgh is very tight. There just isn’t much available, but we aren’t really sure why. This was the feeling we got from looking online ourselves, but we were hopeful there would be some more places she could show us. It turned out all four places she showed us we had already seen online! They were all in Coraopolis (pronounced cory-opolis), which is a suburb on the western side of Pittsburgh, about 20 minutes from downtown. This is also where the Eaton office is located.

We weren’t impressed by the first place. We really liked the second place, Ventana Hills, but there were no two- or one-bedroom apartments currently available. It has a gated entrance, is up on a hill with pretty views, and has more updated appliances and features in comparison to the first place. We went on to the third place, the Highlands of Montour Run, which is a sister property to Ventana Hills. It is very similar, and we liked it almost just as much, but they also had no two-bedrooms currently available. They did have a one-bedroom available, though, so we started to think about taking that. Just as we were leaving, the lady who showed us around at Ventana Hills called Jon and told him that a two-bedroom had just become available! Someone had just turned in their 30-days notice! We considered going back to take it right then, before anyone else got it, but we decided to go ahead and see the fourth place. It was similar to the first, so after that, we were almost positive we wanted to take the two-bedroom at Ventana Hills. It was almost 5 p.m. at that point, so we decided to think it over that night and come back in the morning if we still wanted to take it. Jill assured us that the other places she had written down for us to look at on our own would not be better than Ventana Hills or the Highlands. It was great that we already knew we wouldn’t even need to go look on our own the next day.

We had forgotten to bring any checks with us, so Jill took us to the main grocery store in Pittsburgh to get a money order. This was actually one of our favorite parts of the trip – because the grocery store is AWESOME. The store’s name? Giant Eagle! The one closest to the area we were in happened to be the Giant Eagle Market District, which is a super Giant Eagle! It looks so similar to Whole Foods on the inside, but it is so much bigger. They have everything you can think of, and so much more…a coffee roasting station, a dry cleaners, a huge section for imported cheeses, even a lettuce farm where you can see lettuce in its different stages of growth! And of course, a cafe area where you can get all kinds of food, pretty much just like Whole Foods.

Jill also drove us to the Eaton office to show Jon the route he could take to work. The building is huge! Which I guess makes sense, since it’s the electrical headquarters. The best part is that it’s only a 10 minute drive from Ventana Hills.

Jill truly doubled as our tour guide that day, also taking us up to Mount Washington, a neighborhood that sits on a steep hill overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline. If you’ve ever seen a picture of the view of downtown Pittsburgh, it was probably taken from Mount Washington. Cable cars travel up and down the Duquesne and Monongahela Inclines, which happen to be the oldest continuous inclines in the world.

We asked Jill lots of questions about the local food, culture, accents, etc. while we were driving around that day, and because of this, we ended up at Primanti Bros. for dinner that night. Jill told us about their famous sandwiches topped with french fries that visitors are always excited to try. We found a Primanti Bros. in Market Square, an area in downtown with lots of shops and restaurants. We had actually been there at Bruegger’s that morning and watched a protest in the square – it was something about medical insurance. It was much less busy on a Monday night, but we still had fun sitting outside and people watching. I could not bring myself to eat one of the sandwiches with fries on it, so I got a salad – which was topped with fries, of course! You can see Jon’s sandwich next to mine. I don’t think he thought it was amazing or anything, but now he can say he’s tried it.

We crunched numbers that night and decided to go ahead and sign the lease on the two-bedroom at Ventana Hills the next morning. At that point we were strongly considering getting a one-bedroom instead to save some money, so we decided to put our name on the wait-list for a one-bedroom just in case one came available in time for us.

When we went back on our own the next morning, four two-bedrooms were available and would be ready by the time Jon moves! But still no one-bedrooms. We got to drive around to each unit to see where it was located, whether it was upstairs or downstairs, forward-facing (meaning facing the parking lot) or backward-facing (with a pretty view).

Another big factor we were considering with all the apartments we looked at was whether to hold out for a pet-friendly unit or not. No, we had not decided we were getting a dog in this first year. But it was a possibility, and I didn’t like the idea of having a place where we definitely could not get one. I wanted to have that option because I think it would make me feel a little safer if/when Jon has to travel (if we got a dog that would actually bark if someone came to the door!) On the flip-side, we have no idea what kind of job and schedule I’ll have, so always having to go home to let a dog out might not be feasible. Only one of the available apartments was pet-friendly, and when we went over to see it, that whole unit smelled like pets. Since the complex has a gated entrance and is in a safe area, I realized I’ll probably feel much safer there then I have these past two years in my house in Chapel Hill. So, (kind-of sadly) we won’t be able to get a dog while we’re living here. We decided to take a non-pet-friendly, backward-facing unit on the first level (meaning we don’t go up or down any stairs and we have a pretty view).

Here is our view from the back! That will be our little balcony on the right.

We didn’t actually go inside, but they had a nice model that we were allowed to walk around in and take pictures as much as we wanted.

Here’s the entrance to the complex:

Behind that sign is the hill where all the apartments sit:

We also put our name on the wait-list for a one-bedroom, but we only had one week before anything that came available would not be ready in time for Jon’s move-in date. So we are sticking with the two-bedroom, which means people better come visit us!!

We had to go back to Ventana Hills later that day because we needed to turn in one more money order we didn’t know about. So we made another trip to Giant Eagle and ate lunch there before going back to Ventana Hills one more time. For some reason ALL of my energy completely drained out of me as we were driving to Giant Eagle. I felt so fatigued, so we didn’t do any more sightseeing that day. We drove around the area and Jon got really proud of himself for already knowing how to get places. Then we stopped in Barnes & Noble for the rest of the afternoon, where I tried to take a nap and was told no one is allowed to sleep there!

That night, we met a friend of my friend’s and her husband for dinner. My friend Annie was born in Pittsburgh and has stayed in touch with her childhood friends from there. One of her friends, Jamie, just got married in February to a guy Annie also knew growing up. We met them for the first time that night, and they were so nice! It was comforting to make a connection like that while we were there. It turns out that the church they grew up in with Annie (and still go to) is right behind Ventana Hills!

We went to Giant Eagle that night for a THIRD time (yes, three times in a four-day trip!) to get some snacks and food for breakfast the next morning. Our flight left at noon the next day and we had a stopover in Cincinnati before arriving back in RDU that afternoon. We were so tired when we got home, but so thankful to have secured a place on that short trip.

Moving plans have changed several times, but I think our plans are final now! Jon’s parents are so graciously helping us move out all the things we are taking to Pittsburgh from our houses in Raleigh and Chapel Hill on Memorial Day. Jon and his dad will take everything to their house in Asheville, where the movers will come get everything a few days later. The movers will put it all in storage for two weeks, and then on June 12 Jon and I will drive to Pittsburgh. The movers will bring everything to our apartment the next day, which is when our lease starts. We’ll have a couple of days to unpack things, and then we are both flying to a wedding in Orlando that weekend. One of Jon’s groomsmen is getting married that Saturday. On Sunday, Jon will fly back to Pittsburgh and start work the next day! I will fly back to Charlotte and stay at home until the wedding…which means sometime before that I have to narrow down all my things to just the essentials I’ll need for two months this summer! This has been complicated, to say the least!

almost-three-month-mark

I cannot believe we are almost only three months away! We have 99 days to go, according to my timeline on the knot. Time has flown since my last post. Jon and I actually just returned yesterday from our four-day trip to Pittsburgh to go apartment hunting! I’m going to write about that in another post, but I’ll save you the anticipation – we found a place to live!! Hooray!

We’ve been crazy busy with that trip and all the other complicated scheduling of our lives and moving things between now and August! We have made some progress on the checklist I posted last time, though. Here it is:

• Finish the design on the invitations and get them printed: CHECK! I put Jon to task doing the design with me three weeks ago because our next two weekends were completely full. Since we had the invitations printed ourselves, we were able to play around with the wording, fonts and layout and all that. We did many revisions and test prints before we got them right! We dropped them off to be printed at Kinko’s the day before we left for Pittsburgh, and I picked them up today. They look great!

• Finalize the guest list and upload it to our website for the RSVP system: Half-check? We did (finally) finalize the guest list. But we haven’t uploaded it to our website yet. I might let Jon take care of that one And it really isn’t necessary until invitations go out anyway, which won’t be for another three weeks, at least.

• Figure out how we’re going to address the invitations – printing labels or calligraphy? CHECK! My discipleship leader, Abbey, is going to address them with her calligraphy for me! So glad she is willing to do it!

• Jon – working on getting the suits to all the groomsmen, getting his suit tailored, and helping the guys figure out tailoring issues: No checks Once he finishes his exams next Wednesday, I’m sure he will jump on that!

• Work on finding my shoes and jewelry and picking out a hairstyle and a veil length: One half-check? I haven’t found shoes or jewelry or thought much about my veil since the last time I was at J. Major’s. I did spend some time looking at hairstyles, though, and made a little folder on my computer of pictures I like.

• Start brainstorming about centerpieces and working on other decor details: Nope.

• Pick out Jon’s ring: No check.

• Coordinate working on the song Ellie is going to sing at our wedding: We  figured out that we can’t make much progress on this. We had a couple weeks of wondering if Jon’s friend Alex would even be able to make it to our wedding at all, meaning we might have to find someone else to play guitar. Thankfully he found out a few days ago that he will be able to come! However, it looks like there is no day this summer that he, Ellie and Olivia will be able to get together to practice. Olivia and Alex are leaving soon for summer-long trips. Hopefully we will be able to record them doing their parts and give them the recordings to practice with on their own before the rehearsal!

So that’s it for the previous checklist I made! I also have my checklist on the knot over here, but trust me, you do not want to see that. I currently have 134 to-dos, it says…

I also did do a few other things that weren’t on my list:

• Found an awesome potential hairstylist/makeup artist who could travel to me on the wedding day! We have been in contact and I am waiting to figure out if any of the times I’m available for a trial run will work for her. I will have to go to her for that, which is about an hour-and-a-half away, so it’s tricky.
• Put together the rehearsal dinner guest list.
• Talked with Jon’s mom about some rehearsal dinner invitations we like.
• Picked out a fine china pattern I like and added it to our registry.
• Started practicing the first dance song with Jon!

I was busy for the first couple weeks of April writing an entry for an awards submission with my current internship. We entered a wedding from May 2011 in the “best wedding” category for the Triangle’s local ISES chapter. We also entered that same wedding in the overall international awards, the Esprits, yesterday. We should find out about nominations for the Esprits at the beginning of August. Shawn was nominated when she submitted two years ago, but did not win, so we have our fingers crossed!

The week after the submission I nannied all week instead of just the first half, and then that Friday night I had my lingerie shower here in Chapel Hill! Two of my bridesmaids, Emily and Annie, planned it and it was a lot of fun! The next day I shadowed Shawn at a wedding all the way out in Angier (an hour from Chapel Hill).

That same weekend Jon had his bachelor-party weekend. He and some of his groomsmen went camping at a lake near Uhwarrie Point. Unfortunately it rained a lot and was cold

During all of that Jon was also extremely busy with his senior design project, until last week when all the ECE majors had their design day. The last few weeks leading up to that were brutal for his group with hours upon hours working in the lab trying to write code to test the reliability of certain wifi packets…hopefully I got that right!

I can’t forget to mention, that same night Jon and I went to see Ben Rector (my favorite!) and Needtobreathe in Raleigh! And then we actually met Ben Rector afterward and got our picture with him!

Look at them talking right there like total bros, as Jon would say…

The next day, after Jon’s last classes ever (!) we babysat for Lucas while Ashley and Brandon went on their first date since becoming parents! Our birthday present to Ashley was a movie gift certificate to see The Hunger Games and a free night of babysitting. It was great spending time with little Lucas! I tried out their ERGObaby carrier on a walk, and I loved it! So did Lucas – he slept the whole time. Here we are before going outside:

Uncle Jon feeding earlier that afternoon:

The next night we went to the wedding of a couple who has been doing some pre-marital counseling with us. We’ve been going through Tim Keller’s “The Meaning of Marriage” with them and a group of married couples at Jon’s church. The next morning we flew out to Pittsburgh!

This Saturday Jon and I are having a wedding shower together, hosted by three of my bridesmaids, Olivia, Caitlin, and Ashley (Jon’s sister). It will be at Ashley’s house in Durham. Caitlin and Olivia designed these SUPER cute invitations for the shower, which is going to be a casual cook-out party:

My parents and Jon’s parents will both be coming up for it, and we’re so excited to celebrate with everyone!

Moving forward, the next most important things on my list are:

• Book a hairstylist/makeup artist for the day-of and schedule my trial run. Which means I also must narrow it down to two-three hairstyles to try!
• Figure out my hair and makeup for bridal portraits (May 31!)
• Find my shoes! Must have them for my dress fitting May 16!
• Get recordings of Alex and Olivia playing the song before they leave for the summer.
• Assemble the invitations and get them in the mail.
• Get the rest of the groomsmen’s suits to them.
• Get Jon’s suit tailored before he leaves for Pittsburgh.
• Buy Jon’s shirt and shoes before he leaves.
• Complete another packet of marriage-counseling material and meet with our pastor before Jon leaves.

We have a little over a month to do these things, so not too much pressure. However, this next week Jon has his last three finals ever, and then we both have our graduations that weekend! The next week we go to Charlotte for my two dress fittings and to take a flight with Olivia (she has her pilot’s license)! I gave Jon a flight with her for his birthday present, so we will do that when we’re there, and then Jon will go to one of his groomsmen’s bachelor-party weekend trips at the lake. I’ll stay at home to get more wedding things done…more to come!

four-months-to-go update!

Today is the four-month mark! That might still seem like a ways away, but it doesn’t feel like it at all, now. It’s funny – five months felt like a lot more time! I’ve got a lot to tell, so get ready…

I didn’t post an update yet from our weekend in Charlotte, when we did several wedding-related things, which was two weekends ago. First we met with our florist to talk about some things in person that we have only been able to email about. We talked about ideas for bouquets when I met with her a couple months ago, and had been emailing changes and pictures back and forth. She knows all the flowers we are talking about using really well – how their sizes will complement each other, and what might not do very well in a bouquet, etc., so I feel good about the bouquets now! We didn’t get much time to discuss her proposal for centerpiece options or other decor because I had scheduled a walk-through for us at Alexander Homestead right afterward. My florist had not been to the venue yet, so I thought it would be good to get some visuals.

Here is the walk from the back of the main house/carriage house to the barn:

This is where guests will meander around during the cocktail hour!

This is a view of the backside of the carriage house, where my bridesmaids and I will finish getting ready!

While we were there, we also got a couple sketches of different options for the layout of tables inside the barn. Unfortunately, I found out A.H. only owns a few harvest (long) tables, and they always use them for certain things, like for the DJ and gift table, etc., I think. There is an additional fee to rent more of them. So I think we will end up having only a few of the long tables, which I’m a little sad about. I might use them for the head table if we seat the bridal party on both sides.

I also got to see a few linen samples in the light pink/peachy-pink color family from the vendor A.H. uses. However, I also (unfortunately) found out their linen prices are pretty steep. I will definitely not be renting tablecloths through A.H. for every table. I really liked one of the samples – a light peach – that they offer, so I might rent napkins instead of tablecloths in this color, if the price is a lot better, or just get tablecloths for the head tables in this color. A.H. offers a handful of basic colors at no extra charge, so I might use their ivory or champagne tablecloths and accent it with peach/pink napkins. Another option I might explore is working with a less expensive rental company in Charlotte.

So I haven’t really nailed down any of the details in terms of the look inside the barn yet, as you can tell! I am thankful, though, that the inside doesn’t need a TON of decor to make it match a sit-down dinner. Another barn I considered using back in October needed a whole lot to dress it up. It was cute, but it was just old and worn in a lot of places, and some of the details – like the bathrooms! – were really outdated. The barn at A.H. is still very new, though. There are no big eyesores I’ll have to figure out how to cover up!

This is the angle from the side entry, where I think we will have guests enter after the cocktail hour. From this perspective (above), the right and left-side walls are actually big, sliding barn doors! The right side opens up into the yard, and the left side opens up into a little atrium, which was just added on in December.

It was set up for a small ceremony the next day when we were there, but we will need to use it for additional seating because we have too many people for the main room only! Below is another view of the atrium.

Below: in the main room, facing the bar area

After the walk-through with our florist, Jon and I went to a caterer tasting in the main house at A.H. We were served their California salad, which was good and pretty basic – tossed greens with red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, maybe some olives and onions? (which we don’t like, but I figure that’s pretty typical for a salad), and Italian dressing, I think. I’m pretty sure we’re going to go with that option for the salad because it seems like it would please the most people.

We also tried three different meats – chicken, steak and pork – and were served green beans almandine and potatoes au gratin. Jon LOVED the potatoes au gratin, and I thought they were really good too, so we’re definitely going to choose that for our starch! Also, definitely going with the chicken. It was good, and we weren’t very impressed with the steak or pork. I think we will do the green beans for the vegetable, too. We had amazing  cheesecake for dessert, but unfortunately that’s not park of the package.  Our wedding cake will have to do! Which I’m not worried about at all, because our cake lady makes delicious cake!

Saturday morning I showed Jon the church, which he hadn’t seen yet. We also saw what they use for the bride’s room and where the groomsmen usually get ready/hang out. It’s nothing fancy, but it will work as a place to start getting ready. A.H. has a good space in their carriage room, but we can’t start using it early enough in the day to get totally ready there. So the plan as of now is that I will start getting ready at the church, and then meet up with my bridesmaids to finish doing that with them at A.H.

After that, I went to J.Major’s to try on my dress! It fit really well for having had no alterations yet, and I’m happy with how the top looks with the skirt. Lula Kate made the dress for me with one of their bridesmaid dress tops in lieu of the regular top because I wanted something simpler. I’m having the neckline altered a bit before I go back for an actual fitting. My assignment before I go back in mid-May is to find my shoes so we can decide on the length next time! I also want to find some options for jewelry so I can try it on with the dress in the store. J.Major’s is going to get all the alterations done for me in less than 48 hours the next time I go home so that I don’t have to make two more trips, which is great! I’ve scheduled my bridal portraits for early June, so that should give us just enough time to fix any problems that might come up during the fitting.

That was it for that weekend! I finally put the finishing touches on our registry this past weekend, other than a few things we might add once we figure out what kind of space we’ll have in our apartment.

We also started working on the invitations this past weekend, which is a long process. We designed the text for the actual invitation, did some test prints, and took the kit to Kinko’s to make sure they will be able to print on all the different sizes of paper we have. My friend Kourtney, who’s getting married in May, used the same kind of invites I’m using and got them printed at Kinko’s. Knowing I would probably mess them up doing it myself at home, we decided to do this as well. Printing at Kinko’s is a great option at only 11 cents per sheet of paper. It looks like that will come in at only about $35 for everything for us! We also took 10 invitation sets into the post office to figure out how much extra postage we will need, and can you believe it’s almost twice as much as regular postage? Each invitation will need 85 cents of postage because of the extra weight! That confirmed our decision to do RSVPs by way of our website only, rather than by mail, which requires a courtesy stamp for each RSVP envelope. I think that will also make keeping track of the RSVPs easier on us as they come in. It seemed silly to me to think about saving just $50 somewhere at the beginning of this process, when you’re spending thousands on other things, but now that I know where that extra $50 could be used, it really does make a difference!

We also made a decision about the groomsmen’s ties! We decided to order the ones I posted pictures of in my last post. Four bow ties and five neckties!

Oh – and other big news – Jon got to cast my wedding ring last week!! The jeweler we are working with to make my custom ring has been so great. They just moved into a much bigger space at Five Points in Raleigh, and they asked Jon if he wanted to be there when my ring was cast – meaning the gold was liquefied, and then poured into the mold and hardened. So he went and got to push the button on the machine! So cool.

Did I ever mention we booked our honeymoon? We’re going to Turks & Caicos!!! That was a month ago or more that we did that, but I don’t think I ever said it!

So what are we working on now?

• Finishing the design on the invitations and getting them printed
• Finalizing the guest list and uploading it to our website for the RSVP system
• Figuring out how we’re going to address the invitations – printing labels or calligraphy?
• Jon is working on getting the suits to all the groomsmen, getting his suit tailored, and helping the guys figure out tailoring issues
• I’m working on finding my shoes and jewelry and picking out a hairstyle and a veil length!
• I’m going to start brainstorming about centerpieces and working on other decor details.
• Picking out Jon’s ring.
• Coordinating working on the song Ellie is going to sing at our wedding (“Thy Mercy,” by Caedmon’s Call). Jon’s friend Alex is going to play the guitar, and my bridesmaid Olivia is going to play the violin – somehow we have to get them together to practice it (they live in 3 different places), or give them recordings of each other playing/singing so they can practice on their own.

I could go on, but I think that’s enough for now! Wish us luck!

bridal party attire

Jon and I have been working on groomsmen attire recently, so I thought I would share an update on that and show you what our bridesmaid dresses will look like! I’m too excited to keep them a secret!

I decided on the bridesmaid dresses back in January and said that they are pale pink Alfred Sung dresses. We will have six different styles, though! I let the girls choose which style they want to wear out of 15 or so different styles I liked, and here they are!

The only difference is only two of my girls actually have brown hair, haha! All the rest are blonde. You know what one of my favorite things about these dresses is? They all have pockets! I’m so jealous. That was something I said I wanted on my dress, but alas – mine doesn’t come with them. This is almost as good, though

The order went in on March 1 or a few days after, and are expected to get in at the end of May. I can’t wait to see them on everyone together!

I’m not asking the girls to all wear the same shoes – a dress is expensive enough to buy! I’m just going to ask them to wear cream, nude or gold heels, or some shade in between.

Now for the boys…Jon and I bought all the guys’ suits at once about a month ago, kind-of spur of the moment! We were just going to look at Jos. A. Bank and I was planning on looking at some other places before we decided where to get them. We had already decided on navy suits, and there actually weren’t many options for solid navy at Jos. A. Bank. Jon felt good about the one we were looking at, and after a while the salesman helping us started talking about what he could do for a group discount. We knew Jos. A. Bank always does some kind of “buy one, get two free” type of sale, but that still didn’t seem like it would give us a price close enough to what Jon and some of his friends have paid recently for suits. In the end I felt like we bargained with the salesman because he went up on the group discount like three times before we agreed!

Originally we thought we would pick out a suit and have the guys go get them on their own, but the point of a group rate is, of course, to buy them as a group, and there is no way we could ever get all 11 of them (dads included) into a store at the same time! So we sat in the back of the store and called all the guys right then to get their sizes while the nice salesman searched for what they had in the store at the moment and ordered the rest. Not sure how different suits can look, but here it is!

Just ignore the tie. Not as exciting as six different dresses, I know. It was really nice that the suits were easy, though, since deciding on bridesmaid dresses was SO hard for me! I was so happy to have this done in one trip. Now the guys just have to pay Jon, get their suits from him, and have their pants hemmed. Wonder how long that will take??

Next, suspenders! I’m really excited my idea to have the guys wear them has come to fruition. Jon was a little skeptical when I first suggested it, but then every groomsman we asked was excited about it, so he changed his mind! We decided on navy for all the guys:

They are ordered and on their way! We decided to gift the suspenders and the ties to the guys, because on top of buying a suit, that would be asking a lot.

The ties have been the hardest part. I knew I didn’t want them to be pink to match the bridesmaid dresses because pink and navy are not even my colors. But most of the groomsmen are not really the type I can see wearing a peach or sea-foam tie…including Jon…so I didn’t want to make them do that. And I don’t want to introduce a completely different color, either. But! – I think I have it figured out. Jon is a fan of this gingham navy and white option I found, so I’m pretty sure this is what we are going to go with.

It also comes in a bow tie!

We will probably get bow ties and regular ties and have the guys choose which they want. Jon will definitely wear a regular necktie, though. I think I’m settled on this pattern, but I’m not guaranteeing I won’t change my mind about them! We’ll see…

The guys will wear white shirts, and apparently you’re supposed to wear black shoes with navy suits. I had no idea – wearing black and navy together is one of my pet peeves! But apparently it’s what you do for suits, so I guess I’ll be okay with it!

Jon and I are going to Charlotte this weekend for several wedding things – caterer tasting, a meeting with the florist, showing Jon the church (he still hasn’t seen it) and…first dress fitting!! Sort of – it came in last week!! I’m supposed to try it on to inspect it and I will hopefully decide how/if I want to alter the top at all because I’m having the top completely changed from how the designer makes it. More updates coming soon!

SW yard sale + wedding colors

This past weekend I went to the Southern Weddings yard sale, hosted at Editor-in-Chief Lara Casey’s home in Chapel Hill! Her garage was full of previously-used wedding things, like little colored glass votive containers, Chinese lanterns, chargers, yards of fabric, and so much more. I went with one of my engaged friends, Caroline, who is getting married next summer!

We found a box full of styrofoam blocks covered in burlap, which I love!

Lara told me she used them as food platters at a wedding she planned. I ended up buying all 30 or so of them because I’m not sure how I’ll use them yet. That will be more than enough for one per table, if I use them as part of the table arrangements. They would be great for pinning things on, like the dinner menu at the table, or the escort cards at the entry somewhere. Caroline might also want to reuse them after me for her wedding!

I also bought several Chinese lanterns in my colors, which…have I even said what my colors are yet? I have kind-of hated that question so far in the planning process. Maybe it’s because I haven’t dreamed about my wedding in all pink and green, or turquoise and buttercup yellow since I was five, I’m not sure…I’m just not the kind of person that wants everything to be one of two or three colors. Also, committing to just two colors was too big of a decision for me to make from the start! Everyone seemed to think I should have that nailed down right away for some reason. Anyway, what I have been visualizing as my colors are peach (more of a light pink-ish peach than orange-y) and seafoam…a light blue-ish green. And I finally see that starting to materialize with my bouquet, which I’m super excited about! Here is one of my inspiration photos I pulled from Pinterest (of course!).

There will be succulents!! More on that later. My bridesmaids’ dresses are a very pale, neutral pink, which isn’t one of my two colors, so there will be a mix of shades and some elements of other colors as well. Also more on the bridesmaids’ dresses later!

Anyway, I bought some Chinese lanterns to potentially hang in the barn somewhere or outside in the gazebo. I got them in cream, a peach, and a light blue-ish gray. I realized when I got home and talked to my roommate Emily (who interned at SW last year and came back from the yard sale with lots of new home decor for us!) that I didn’t get the metal things that go inside to hold the lanterns open! I don’t think those were being sold with the lanterns, but maybe I just missed it. Hopefully I can find them online or somewhere else if we do end up wanting to use them.

I left with some extra burlap as well, in case I need any more to do something with. Southern Weddings went crazy with burlap last week, as their most recent Ultimate Southern Challenge round called for burlap DIY ideas. Here and here are two of my favorite entries!

blog changes

So I know I keep changing the layout of my blog. I just haven’t found a design I love yet, so bear with me! I decided to use wordpress rather than blogspot when I created my blog, but now I’m wondering if I should’ve gone with blogspot…I like the look of wordpress better…I think it’s cleaner and more professional looking, but it’s so also very complicated sometimes. It’s a lot more complex, probably with a lot of great features that I just haven’t taken the time to figure out yet. There are several pretty simple things I’ve been wanting to do for a while that I’m still working on.

Speaking of, one very recent thing is to add this southern bride blogger badge I just received from Southern Weddings!

Yay! This is just because I’m a bride in the south who blogs about her wedding To see the blogs of the other southern bride bloggers, go here!

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me on layout and design!

spring break: wedding to-dos, Charleston and baby Lucas!

Technically I didn’t have a spring break this year because I’m not in class anymore. But really, I pretty much still had one! Jon’s sister’s due date was last Monday, the first real day of spring break for Jon. So the weekend prior to that was filled with time with Jon’s family. His parents and cousin Farrin were in town, all hoping Ashley would deliver sometime that weekend!

On Friday, before going over to Ashley’s, Jon and I bought our wedding invitations! I was so excited to have that out of the way. There was a BRIDES invitation kit at Michael’s I had been considering using ever since my sister showed it to me several months ago. The invites is one area Jon and I decided to save money on by not going the expensive route of having someone else make them, print them, and send them to us. Instead, I bought all the stationery as a set and will print on them myself. I had not seen the set I wanted at another Michael’s earlier that day, but the one at Southpoint had exactly four boxes left, just the amount we needed! PTL because I think they are maybe about to go out of stock. I love when things like that happen…just a little confirmation from the Lord that He is aware of what we need.

The parents of the little girl I babysit unfortunately had to go out of the country Monday through Wednesday for a funeral, which was of course planned last minute. The dad’s mom, who splits the week taking care of the baby with me, came to stay with her overnight those days. So I ended up having spring break week off, even though I wasn’t planning on it! I took care of the baby all day Sunday instead, since there was a gap between when the parents needed to leave and when her grandmother could get in town. I took her over to Ashley’s house on Sunday, hoping being around a baby might make little Lucas want to come out! Turns out she did not like being around a group of people and we had a rough time getting her to stop crying!

I actually did work that Monday because I met Shawn (the wedding planner I work for) at her house since we weren’t able to meet the previous week. I was there most of the day putting together a blog post about a corporate event Shawn did at Christmas time.

After that, I met Jon at his house and we headed over to a custom jeweler we have been consulting about making a custom wedding band for me! It is a husband-and-wife team, and the intricate things they can do with jewelry in their little workshop is amazing! We could not find a wedding band that went very well with my engagement ring at Diamond’s Direct, where Jon got it, because of its unique shape. We heard about this custom jeweler through a friend of a friend, and I am so excited that they will be able to make a band that fits my ring perfectly! We left my ring there for them to use the next day to make a mold, and then design a model of their proposed band.

Jon and I went to his pastor’s house afterward to have a pre-marital counseling session. All this time we were wondering if we’d get a call that Ashley had gone into labor, but nothing….

The next day, Jon and I spent the day together getting coffee, doing P90X yoga (yeah, I got him to do that whole hour and a half with me!), doing laundry, cleaning, and packing his stuff for Charleston. We went back to the jeweler that evening to see the model of my band and pick up my ring, and then we stopped at Ashley’s house for dinner on the way to my house. Then it was my turn to do laundry and pack!

The next morning Jon and I met with a potential videographer, who I happened to meet about a year ago as the friend of one of my friend’s brothers. We had gotten a great recommendation for Peyton Lea from a married couple who used him, and I’m excited to say we have decided to have him video our wedding as well!

Next, with no sign of labor from Ashley, Jon and I got on the road to Charleston. We got there around dinnertime and had a quick dinner at Qdoba, then drove the rest of the way to my aunt Karen’s house. We visited with her for a while and planned how we would spend the next day.

Thursday morning Jon and I drove to Sullivan’s Island and parked at the beach. It was a little too chilly to lie out or sit and read, so we just walked, and it was so peaceful with almost no one on the beach. We also stopped at some rocks and did some yoga poses Jon had learned on Tuesday

Next we went down the street to Poe’s Tavern where I had the best burger I’ve ever had! I’ve been there a couple times before, but I must not have gotten a burger, because I don’t remember it being so good. They grind their own meat there, so they can do it any way you want it (shout out to Nanna – I know you would appreciate that!)

After lunch we drove into downtown Charleston, parked along the water, and walked around. We walked through White Point Gardens and the battery, and then around the gorgeous, colonial-style homes, which I love! We stopped at a local coffee shop to sit down, and then eventually went back to the car and drove over to the market. So much of the market has been renovated since I was there last year, and it’s so nice now. Before going home, we stopped at Sunglass Warehouse where I finally got some nice sunglasses and a case so I can’t break them like I always do!

That night we had dinner at my aunt’s house with my cousin Chris and his wife Susannah, who is due to have their first baby, Anna Merrell, March 23! We had still gotten no word on labor starting for Ashley…

The next day we went to King Street, my favorite! We found a good salad and wrap place called Verde for lunch. We went to a lot of local boutiques and stores, but of course ended up getting a bunch of things at J.Crew! I think the J.Crew on King Street must have a higher volume than the stores at Southpark, Southpoint and Crabtree, because it always has things I don’t see around here.

For dinner, we walked over to Church Street to eat at Bocci’s, a quaint little Italian restaurant that was really good. We drove along the battery and walked out to a pier on the Cooper River where we had a pretty view of the Cooper River Bridge and Fort Sumter at night.

The next morning my aunt made us breakfast before we packed up to leave for Charlotte. We stopped at my cousin’s house on the way out, where he and his wife’s family were getting ready for his 30th birthday party that night, including cooking a pig!

The Carolina/State ACC semifinals game was on when we were on the way to Charlotte, so most of the trip was spent with me trying to watch it on Jon’s phone and give him updates while it froze every other second! When we stopped for lunch we of course watched the game until it ended, and do I need to mention who won?

We got to my parents’ house and had dinner with them, then stayed there that night. In the morning Jon’s mom let us know that Ashley had been having more consistent contractions all night, so she might go into labor sometime that day! It wasn’t urgent enough for us to change our plans, though, so we went to church with my family, had lunch, and then stopped at the Charlotte airport on our way back to Chapel Hill to pick up my roommate Melissa who had just flown in and needed a ride back.

It felt like we had been in the car nonstop for days when we finally got back to my house Sunday evening! Jon was about to head back to Raleigh when his mom told us she was pretty sure they would be going to the hospital sometime that night! Ashley was going to deliver at UNC Hospitals, which is less than 10 minutes from my house, so Jon ended up staying on our couch, anticipating a phone call all night!

Jon’s mom texted around 4 a.m. that they were on their way to the hospital. Around 7 a.m. she told us to come on over if we could because Ashley would probably deliver in the next hour or so! I was supposed to nanny that morning, starting at 9 a.m., so I wasn’t sure what to do. I’m so glad I asked the mom if I could be a little late so I could go to the hospital – she ended up giving me the whole day off because her sister was in town and was able to take care of the baby! So Jon and I got ready really quickly and got there around 8 a.m.

As it turns out, little Lucas didn’t see the light of day until 3:17 p.m.! Jon’s mom taught childbirth classes for years, so she was coaching Ashley through contractions at home, and they waited longer than most first-time mothers do to go to the hospital. Since she was already pretty far along when she arrived, everyone thought the rest would happen quickly. Unfortunately for her, wanting to do it all naturally, the midwife decided she needed to have an epidural to help her get to where she needed to be to start pushing. It had been several hours of pressure that could do damage if prolonged, and she was exhausted. Personally, I don’t think I’d mind someone telling me I didn’t have to feel the pain anymore!

Everything went smoothly after that, and after a couple more hours of waiting, we finally got to see and hold the little boy! Look at his cute, shrivel-y newborn hands! What a miracle.

Jon with Lucas – so happy and proud!

We were SO exhausted at that point – not really sure why when we were just sitting around all day! I guess the waiting and wondering and staying in the tiny waiting room most of the day got to us. So Jon and I went home after we saw Lucas and I slept very well that night!!

King’s Cross: Jesus opens the temple

With all the extra time I have this semester due to not being in class, I’ve had a lot more time to read and be in the Word which has been so good. One book I’ve been reading is Tim Keller’s newest book (besides his book on marriage, which I am also reading with Jon for our pre-marital counseling!) called King’s Cross. I’m borrowing it from my friend and mentor Dawn, who highly recommended it.

King’s Cross goes through the book of Mark because this gospel focuses most intently on the words and actions of Jesus. It also presents Jesus’s life “in two symmetrical acts: his identity as King over all things, (in Mark chapters 1-8) and his purpose in dying on the cross (in Mark chapters 9-16)” (xiv). Keller split his book up into these two sections as well.

Keller doesn’t comment on every single passage, but rather focuses on the texts he believes expand on Jesus’s identity and purpose the most. What I really like about this is that these aren’t necessarily the most well-known, preached-on passages. And in those texts that are well-known, Keller always brings some insight from the historical context that gives the passage a new layer of meaning I would have never realized on my own. I’ve been shocked by how many passages are really pretty hard to understand on the surface. I’ve realized I’ve glazed over a lot of things I don’t understand, just dismissing some things as irrelevant details to include, or thinking maybe something got lost in translation.

Yesterday I read about Jesus clearing the temple, and I really love the new understanding I have of this passage, so I thought I would share….Mark 11:15-17:

¹⁵ On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷ And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’^[c]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’^[d]”

Keller says the fact that Mark notes that Jesus entered the temple courts – or in the version Keller uses, the temple “area” – is very significant because when you entered the temple, the first area you came to “was the court of the Gentiles – the ethne or ‘nations’” (156). This was the only area where non-Jews were allowed. The Jews had allowed all the temple’s business operations to be set up there – buying and selling thousands of animals and exchanging foreign currencies with money changers. Thousands of people flooded into Jerusalem to buy animals and sacrifice them.

“The ancient historian Josephus tells us that in Passover week one year, 255,000 lambs were bought, sold and sacrificed in the temple courts. Think of how tumultuous, loud, and confusing our financial trading floors are – and then add livestock. And this was the place where the Gentiles were supposed to find God through quiet reflection and prayer” (156).

Surely the temple leaders panicked and asked Jesus what he was doing. Jesus quoted from Isaiah, saying, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” – for the ethne, the Gentiles.

So Jesus’s reaction, then – to drive the businessmen out and throw the tables over – was not just a display of righteous anger toward the disrespect people were showing to God’s house, but also an act of advocacy for the Gentiles, who were still being treated as the “least” of God’s people by the Jews.

Keller says it was popularly believed that when the Messiah came, he would “purge the temple of foreigners,” meaning get rid of the Gentiles! “Instead, here is Jesus clearing the temple for the Gentiles” (157).

Even more than this, Jesus was saying that the Gentiles could go to God directly in prayer. This undermined the entire sacrificial system. The point of this system was to atone for sins…as a way for people to ask forgiveness for their sins and speak to God. Instead, Jesus said that even the Gentiles could actually go to God on their own, without these sacrifices.

I found this very significant and even personal because as a non-Jew, I – and almost every other Christian I know – am from the line of the Gentiles. So this passionate act of advocacy by Jesus is for me and for you. It’s a reminder of Jesus’s desire for us to have free and unhindered communication with God. He not only died on the cross to give us this, but he also fought against the religious structure that barred us from a personal relationship with the Lord while He was on Earth.

I highly recommend this book! There are several other passages that have really stood out to me, so hopefully I’ll be able to post about those as well.

On a less serious note, watch this satirical video of Jesus clearing the temple and other parts of Mark 11. The point of the video is to break down the legalistic, impersonal and unemotional picture Christians have often (incorrectly!) painted of Jesus. It’s okay to laugh at this – it’s supposed to be funny! These “Jesus Videos” were made in 2003 by Vintage 21, a church here in Raleigh that Jon actually used to go to. There are three others you can find on the same page if you appreciate this sense of humor!

Pittsburgh, here we come!

This was literally Jon’s text to me today at 10:06 a.m. to let me know it’s a done deal! (Note: I wrote this last night – Wednesday – but our Internet is out and I couldn’t post it.) We’ll be in Pittsburgh for our first year of marriage, ah! So now I have to go backwards and catch you up, because I never wrote a little update before we heard the final decision.

I can’t believe it is already two weeks ago that Jon found out his options for locations, but yes, it was February 16 that he got a call from manager of his program. We were surprised to hear we had only four places to choose from: Pittsburgh, Southfield (MI), Grand Rapids and Milwaukee. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? COLD?? Yes, I know. I was not loving the sound of all northern, cold cities.

We were surprised because there are a lot more than four locations that get people in Jon’s program every year. Our top choices from a list we saw of places people have gone in the past were Denver, or Costa Mesa (CA). We knew we might not have these options this first year since there were second-year people that were placed right before Jon’s group, and therefore got the first choices, I guess you could say. Also, some locations on the list we saw are pretty much for mechanical engineers only. However, we were still expecting more options and options that were more spread out across the country. We did find out that at least one other location still had outstanding requests for people, but since a few participants had already been placed there, while some other cities had no one yet (like our options), they had to focus on placing people in those locations that didn’t have anyone.

So, we had to rank those four options. We looked up all kinds of statistics about each city – crime index, weather averages, cost of living, median household income, average rent, etc. Another big consideration was what Jon would be doing at each location, because the work is very different in every place. We knew from the beginning Pittsburgh was our first choice…it’s the least cold, it’s closest to home and it’s the electrical headquarters, which will be great for Jon. It also had the lowest crime index! Believe it or not, Southfield came in second on that statistic. It’s outside of Detroit, which many have said is the worst city in America (?) Sorry to those who live in Detroit…I was surprised we ended up putting Southfield second because originally we thought we’d put it last. We put Milwaukee last because the weather only sounds pleasant for about two months of the year, and Jon liked the sound of the work there the least. So we ranked them exactly the way I listed them above.

Jon was really great and just had a positive attitude about all of this, finding out great things about these cities, especially Pittsburgh. Apparently Pittsburgh has made a lot of progress in recent years and really come out of the “steel mills and factory smoke” stereotype it’s had for many years. It was actually named the most livable city in America in 2011, which is in regard to infrastructure, education, culture and environment, etc. This was good news to me, as I didn’t really have much to go off of about Pittsburgh! (Other than that my friend Annie is from there and loves it, and that everyone from there loves the Steelers…)

Jon sent in our ranking the following Monday or Tuesday, and then the manager of his program set up a conference call for him the next Tuesday with the manager in Pittsburgh. We weren’t surprised that it seemed likely we would get Pittsburgh because the guy Jon has been in contact with was encouraging him to strongly consider it and seemed to think it would be a good fit for him.

Yesterday Jon had that conference call, and it went really well. He got a better idea of what he will actually be doing there and thinks he will enjoy it! And today he got an email confirming that’s where he’ll be, so it’s official!

We were surprised to find out Jon doesn’t have to start work until June 18 because we were thinking his start date would be June 1. I’m glad because that’s less time we’ll have to live apart and more time we’ll have to get everything packed up! Somehow we have to get all of our stuff to a central location to have it moved, and I have to figure out what I can live without since I won’t be moving yet…And Jon is afraid he won’t have anything to sit on or eat with since most of our stuff will come from wedding presents!

Really, though, we are excited, and thankful the Lord’s plans are coming together for us…believing that familiar verse: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” (Jeremiah 29:11)

So, any advice for a soon-to-be misplaced southerner? Tips on moving or living in a cold city?? Help!

registry overload

Ohhh, registering. This was the one thing I was really excited about doing and not at all stressed about whenever I thought about it…until we started doing it.

Not that all the other planning is really stressful, but it’s at least a little overwhelming because I have to decide on one thing and there are always so many options! I was thinking about registering like strolling through a store when you’re shopping and picking out things you like. No. Believe it or not, people will buy you things from that list! So you have to decide what you really want! Which means endless decisions about the one thing you want in the midst of a million options. This is not good for me. In my roommate’s fiance’s words, I have analysis paralysis

Thankfully I didn’t think too long or hard about where to register, and we just jumped in, starting with Macy’s about a month or so ago. We were probably there for two – three hours and put a grand total of 10 things on our list. It was not very successful. Here’s a picture from that day. It’s from Jon’s phone, so it’s not the best…

That was from the beginning of that trip…I didn’t know what I was in for!

Then, a few weeks later we went to Crate & Barrel. That was much more successful. Mostly, I think, because they didn’t have so many options to choose from! It’s much easier to choose a whisk when you have only two options, not six! We felt like we put so many things on our list, but sadly, we had less than 40 things when we were done. And we still hadn’t even scratched the surface on bed and bath stuff.

Which leads me to…Bed Bath & Beyond. OH MY…it is so “beyond.” To all engaged couples – don’t schedule anything else the day you register here!! This was actually not even on my original list of places; I was going to do Target instead. But so many people told us we needed to do it that I finally gave in! I’ve never been a huge fan of the store, with so many random “as seen on TV” gadgets and a lot of unattractive bedding options, in my opinion…but they have a great return policy (pretty much no rules) and you can always find a coupon for that store. So I’m glad we did it. BUT I am embarrassed to say…we spent a total of six hours in that store!! Pretty much every groom’s nightmare, I’m sure! Poor Jon.

I knew it would be long, but I was not expecting that. I totally lost track of time. We did take a break at one point and sat in Jon’s car because we weren’t hungry enough for dinner and just wanted to sit down! All we had gotten through at that point was kitchen stuff. I said we’d be able to finish the rest in an hour. And I literally thought one hour went by from the time we went back in until the time we were gone. It was actually two-and-a-half hours and the store had closed!! Which meant it was 9:30 p.m. and we hadn’t eaten dinner! We ended up going to Wendy’s which we never do because nothing else was open.

Let me just say…part of the problem was that we registered for everything we had already done – dinnerware and kitchen appliances and gadgets – again at Bed Bath & Beyond just in case not many people go to the other places. So we basically did everything over again, and then everything we hadn’t done yet…which was a lot. But I’m glad we did it…

Another part of the problem is that they have floor to ceiling rooms of everything you can think of…which means wayyy too many options! “Should we get a standing cheese grater with four sides or six? Or just a smaller one-sided one? What about a cheese plane as well? Should we get a cooking utensil set, or separately do a serving spoon, ladle, pierced spoon, spatula”…blah blah blah! I was at the point where I really, really wanted to just not care about these little decisions, but then I would remember that I don’t want to return a million things after the wedding, so I wanted to put things I really want. Such a dilemma. Note to grooms: you should be really opinionated on the days you’re registering to help make decisions faster!

On Monday I went onto our Macy’s registry and saw that the dinnerware we registered for is being discontinued! That’s actually it in the picture up there. If we took that off, we would have had about five things left, so I just decided to delete the whole thing. And start a new registry, at Pottery Barn of course, which I’ve wanted to do all along! Now that I am excited about. I can find bedding I love and lots of decor items that would be fun if we get, but not a big deal if we don’t.

So far I’ve only done things online at Pottery Barn, which is a lot more comfortable than walking around for hours on end! I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up making an Anthropologie wishlist too…actually I’m sure of that – I’ve already told Jon a bunch of things I didn’t want to register for at BB&B because I want to get cute ones from Anthro instead!

I think it will be fun from here on out now because I know the essentials are mostly taken care of, and we don’t have to have any more day-long registry trips! Hallelujah!

Do you have any bad registry stories? Tips? What would be your #1 place to register if you did it over again? Or what will it be if you haven’t done it yet?