Free Photo Book from Wedding Wire & Shutterfly

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When we first got engaged I signed up over at WeddingWire so that I could have a little assistance with a checklist and little things to remember. It is actually a great site for the checklist and budget tool! I used a lot of personal vendors and a lot less national and big name vendors; therefore, I didn’t actually use it for vendor shopping. I did use it for hairstyle ideas and centerpiece ideas! So overall, I think it is a great website! Plus you can also create a custom wedding website for all of your guests to have access to if you would like. You can check ours out here.

I later was offered a free gift if I would review my vendors, even if I needed to add vendors to their list. I did, and ended up receiving a FREE PHOTO BOOK from Shutterfly. I already had an account and previous experience with Shutterfly and was excited! I recently ordered our free photo book using our engagement pictures so that we can have it on display on the guestbook table at the reception.

I definitely suggest checking out WeddingWire if you are in the process of wedding planning! Who knows what freebies you might be able to score! 😉

You can also view a digital version of the photo book we were given below:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive photobook layouts so you can make your book just the way you want.
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Why Do I Hate the Word Elopement?

marriage_proposal_clipartMan of the House and I are getting married in October of this year. I previously posted about our engagement that happened last November (“Mommy Will You Marry My Daddy?” ) We have slowly planned over time versus having to rush and do it all at once. We originally found a place in Gadsden, AL that I am still in love with. If you ever need a venue for such an occasion or banquet, etc. please consider patronizing J & D Farms. It is an absolutely beautiful place.

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barnIt is absolutely beautiful. Check out their website if you have time.

We planned to use J & D Farms when we were going to have a traditional style wedding with ceremony and reception following, everyone invited, all of that good stuff. Then it began to feel like things were getting a little out of hand and also making it feel stressful for us. That stopped us in our tracks. We changed our plans completely.

We decided to go on our honeymoon, get married there in a private ceremony, and then have a reception the following weekend when we returned home. Perfect. There will still be a wedding dress, officiant, photographer, etc. at the ceremony. There will still be a full blown reception with food, family, music, drinks and fun. Oh, and a photographer there as well. Our daughter will still have a pretty little dress, and I’ll still get my hair done professionally for both days. Here’s the deal, though: It will be less stressful, it will be per our wishes, and we won’t have any regrets. Sounds like an absolute perfect wedding day(s) to us!

Then what happened was every where I looked in the Asheville area, offered elopement packages. “Great venue for your private elopement!” Hotels offer elopement packages, there are officiant and photographer combined elopement packages. Elopement, elopement, elopement. I hated it. Elopement? We are not eloping. Are we? To me an elopement is a spur of the moment hey, let’s go get married kind of thing. I was still taking 8 months to plan our  day and trip and honeymoon. Does that count as an elopement? I guess since we aren’t inviting anyone and it will just be us then it is considered an elopement? It still makes me want to be like “wait, this is still like a wedding and we are still having a reception! No one is running off and secretly getting married??” Ha! I know I am being ridiculous, maybe. But I still hate the word. Our invitations for the reception say “following a private ceremony”. Cannot bring myself to say “we are eloping.” To each his own, right? I don’t view it as an elopement, so who cares in the end. (;

Am I the only one who doesn’t like using that word to describe my wedding events?

“Mommy, will you marry my daddy?”

Well this past weekend was definitely one to write on the calendar!! Saturday was a pretty normal day of wrapping a few Christmas gifts and staying in from the cold. Sunday morning our daughter and I took a small road trip with my grandparents for the day. After we returned home around 2 p.m. we spent the day being lazy. Coloring, watching movies, a little cleaning up here and there.

Around 6 p.m. I noticed that my boyfriend comes out of the bathroom from getting a shower and he is dressed in a nice polo that is tucked in, no hat, etc. This is weird for him because I’ve only seen him wear the shirt he had on to church or to dinner. I felt a little suspicious. Then he says, “Hey, I’m going to run to the store.” Uh huh. Well whatever, I just go about my business of cleaning, coloring, and occasionally scanning through Twitter. An hour later I get a text that says, “Hey I’m going to stop by Dad’s. I’ll be home in a few.” What? You cannot seriously have still been at the store this long, surely you are already at your dad’s and staying a little longer?

Time rolls on, he gets home and we are doing our normal family routine things, and he “needs to go get his jacket from his truck.” Our daughter asks to go with him so he puts shoes on her and out the door they go. I am in the kitchen heating up food and washing a few dishes. When they come in the back door I turn toward them, and in her sweet little voice our daughter says, “Mommy will you mawwy my daddy??!” I look at him and he is grinning. I look back at her and she is holding this small box. Needless to say, I may have cried a little! After hugging and kissing on HER, I did finally tell him yes!! I loved the privacy of it and how it was so “us.” There was no pressure doing it in front of random strangers at a restaurant or any of that stuff, which is something that I will never understand.

So here we are on our latest adventure! Planning a wedding. Ha! More like here I am on my newest adventure while he agrees with whatever I pick and even said, “you just tell me what you picked, when I should show up, etc. Just get my opinion on the price of things.”

Do you have a great engagement story to share? Do you prefer privacy or some big get away for the big question?

**Also, I will note that I later found out he went by his dad’s house so that he could show the ring to his two older brothers and tell them about it. (I date the baby in the family). And that he and Khloe had to practice what she was supposed to say for a little while because, after all she is two years old, and was getting the words jumbled around. How sweet!!!