happy mother's day.

I love you, Mom!  =)

{wedding slideshow}

I am SOOO excited to have seen our wedding slideshow today! I absolutely LOVE our pictures!

{5-2-2010}

{bridal portraits.}

First things first..

I am now a married woman =)

 Here are some of my favorite pictures from my Bridal Portrait session.

They were taken at the Governor's Mansion in Columbia, SC.

The majority of these pictures were taken by my sister, Jordan and a few were taken by Brielle and my mom. =) -- I thought they did a pretty good job! I absolutely hate taking pictures by myself. hate. hate. 




*For those of you who don't know--

I wore my mom's dress that she wore last year and it was my "something borrowed." 

*My "something new" was my garter.

*My "something old" was a pair of pear earrings my grandma gave me the day before the wedding that my grandpa (who died in 1994) gave her. They mean SO much to me and I am soo honored that my grandma gave them to me.

*My "something blue" was the soles of my wedding shoes =) I am so in love with them!

Also, this was a scheduled post. I was not blogging on my wedding night. No worries! =)

{TWO DAYS.}

Ahhhh! Our wedding is in TWO DAYS! I swear, just the other day it was 100. 

Anyway, my family from Virginia, North Carolina, Texas and Indiana are all coming in today! I am soo excited to see everyone! =)  After Alan gets done with his conference call at work we are going to go and buy all the alcohol for the wedding, get our rings cleaned, get him another bathing suit (since I have like 30 and he has one..) finish packing and load everything into our car, my mom's car and my grandparent's car and then finally go and see my side of the family that comes in this afternoon. Wow, sooo busy. I'm really lucky work was so slow this week. I got a lot of things/ last minute planning/ fighting with our vedors done. =) 

Here is a "sneak peek" of my Bridal Portraits. It doesn't really show the details of my dress or hair..  =) (I picked this picture on purpose.)
I'll put the rest up next week. 

{Also, just so everyone knows-- my 14 year old sister took the majority of my pictures. }

I am sooooo excited that the chance of rain for Sunday went from 40% earlier this week to 10%. I couldn't care less if it stormed all through our reception. BUT our ceremony is outside.. so we can't be having any rain from 3:00- 3:30! =) yay!

{Bachelorette Party.}

{charleston.}

Alan and I had made plans about two weeks ago to take a day trip to Charleston. Then with everything that happened last week, we figured it would be nice to have some alone time and just hang out on the beach. Well, we got to Folly Beach and it was so windy we couldn't stand it. We ate our lunch in the car then headed downtown. When we got there we found out that the Blue Angels had an airshow that was starting like 20 minutes after we got there. My dad is in the aviation industry-- so I have seen my share of air shows (in fact, I've probably seen a few peoples share.) But we went anyway and it was soo crowded!

All in all we had a great day together. I almost forgot our wedding is only 13 days away. Then I had a small panic attack because Alan's passport still hasn't gotten here.

{family pictures.}

While my dad was here we decided to take some family pictures. (The last one w. all of us was taken in 2007-- we were way overdue for a new one.) Thanks Brielle for taking them =)

We love our dad!  =)

{wedding programs}

I am so proud of them =) They look better in person (the ink is actually really dark purple.)

{my dad comes to SC}

Most of you already know my dad doesn't come to SC anymore (he hasn't been here since August 2007) and he has been living in Tucson, Arizona since 2007. Well, my mom called him after we found out I had to have surgery & Jordan was still in the hospital--so he flew here the next day =) I haven't seen him since March of last year and Jordan hadn't seen him since August. He is leaving tomorrow, but it has really helped having him here the last few days. Even at 22-- it is really hard having your family live 3,000 miles away. I know it's part of growing up and blah, blah, blah. I. Don't. Like. It. As of right now, I don't think he is going to be able to fly back for our wedding. I actually already made arrangements last week to have my Uncle Brian (my dad's middle brother) walk me down the aisle. 

The only family I have in South Carolina is my mom, sister, brother (although I saw him more when he lived in AZ) my step-dad (and his family) and step-sister. Everyone else lives in North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Texas and Arizona. That is just my immediate family. Crazy-- I know. Anyway, the point of all that was that I really didn't think most of them were going to be able to make it to the wedding. Well, I am sooo excited that I was wrong. 

I have family coming in from:

--Texas

--Arizona

--North Carolina

--Florida

--Virginia

--Illinois

--Indiana

..and of course--

good ole' South Carolina.

We are so thankful that all of these people are taking the time to come and spend the weekend with us, it means SO much to Alan and me.

We are going to try and take a family picture tomorrow w. me, Derek, Jordan & my dad. =) We haven't all been together since Derek's Graduation in May 2007. A little overdue I'd say. 

{wedding music, programs, honeymoon etc.}

I am in the process of attempting to pick the ceremony & reception music for our wedding. Maybe it is just me-- but I have having the most difficult time deciding. The ceremony music is just me being picky & indecisive. However, the reception music is where I am having some issues. I am a big fan of 80's music. Well, I am actually a fan of most all music. Here's my dilema: most of our guest are much older than Alan and I (including my 80+ year old great grandma) and I absolutely do not want to offend any of them with my music choices. I also do not want to end up with the musical choices of a 40 year old. For now, I have a lot of 80's and 90's music, mixed w. some traditional wedding songs & I have some newer songs thrown in randomly. Any suggestions?? ahhh.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for the ceremony music, I would really appreciate it as well! I have a few different options right now, but I can't seem to decide. I am done with our programs except for the music choices.. so I really need to decided by like tomorrow. ha! good luck.

--Here are some of the things we want to do on our honeymoon:

1. Swim with the dolphins.

2. Visit Chichen Itza

3. Go to Tulum/Xpu-Ha. (we'll be snorkeling here)

4. Zip Line at the Holkan Kingdom Park  

 5. Relax.

 

We will be staying at Aventura Spa Palace  =) Now, we just need for Alan's passport to get here and we're good to go! 



I almost forgot-- my Bachlorette Party is next weekend, April 24-25. We are going to Hilton Head for the weekend and I am so excited! I ordered several new bathing suits from Victoria's Secret last night (for the honeymoon.) But--hopefully they'll be here by next weekend =)



{I love summer.}

{there are no words.}

For a quick overview of our life the past few months-- look at my baby blog. I found out on March 19th I was pregnant again. For two weeks after that I was at the doctor's office every two days having blood drawn to check my hCG levels to ensure everything was progressing normally. I had my first ultrasound on March 31st, and everything looked great.

 Alan and I went to the doctor today for a follow up ultrasound to ensure everything was progressing properly. 

Shortly after we got there we learned the gestational sac had not grown since our last visit on March 31 and it was only measuring at 4 weeks 2 days ( I was 7 weeks 2 days.) There was also no yolk sac, fetal pole or heartbeat. So, at 1pm today I underwent yet another surgery to have a D&C. It was done as an outpatient procedure and I got home around 6:30pm. We chose to do the D&C because w. our wedding/ honeymoon being in a 19 days, the doctor did not want me to go through the miscarriage on my own, and take the chance in it happening either the day of our wedding or while out of the country on our honeymoon.

As for the surgery itself, I am just feeling very crampy and sore. My throat hurts more than anything from them putting the tube down my throat.  ugh. oh well.

{my baby sister.}

We found out last week my sister has Narcolepsy. She was put on a few different medicines, but the options were limited as she is only 14. Today, while at softball she collapsed and is now having a lot of motor skill problems. She will be in the Children's Hospital undergoing a lot of different tests to help determine the causes of these problems.  


please pray for her!!

{sesqui.}

Today, Alan and I decided to take Bella for a 2 mile walk in Sesqui Park. The weather was so nice! 

 She is the only lab I know that doesn't like water. She likes it being poured on her, but not being in it. She's a little weird-- but we still love her =)

my poor worn out, squinty eyed puppy. 

{SCB&T}

I started back work yesterday--and man am I exhausted! I got a new job at South Carolina Bank & Trust and for the next week and a half I am in "teller school." Theirs is sooo much better than BOA (they literally stuck me in a closet to "fend for myself" for the 2 weeks of training.) I am now realize how very thankful I am to have been able to plan my wedding while I was not working. (Brielle, I don't know HOW you did it..) Everything has now been planned, most everything has been payed for-- now just 26 days to go!

{I am...}

Getting MARRIED in one month from TOMORROW! 

Then I will be Mrs. Heather Atkinson.   =)