Busy Bees!

Since our last post, we have gotten so much accomplished! We have applied for our Passports (a very interesting which I will tell later in this post), gotten all of the envelopes addressed by the calligrapher, ordered attendents gifts, found wedding earrings, ordered wedding bands, booked hair and make-up for bride and bridesmaids, FINALLY agreed on a first dance song (which I will admit was the very first song Aaron mentioned months and months ago) and many other things! I don't have many photos to share, but I wanted to keep everyone involved in what is going on.

In the coming weeks, I look forward to getting all of the small details worked out. We are heading to Birmingham on Friday for a cake tasting and final food decisions at the Carraway Davie House. This is a day that I have been looking forward to for a LONG time. While Aaron could care less about the flavors of the cake (he doesn't eat desserts) I LOVE cake and pretty much sweets in general. I will be sure to post some photos from the cake tasting.

Back to the Passport story. I have been pretty anal about getting all of the proper documentation for the honeymoon, so I decided to fill out my passport application and head to the local post office to submit my application. Everyone knows what an ordeal the post office can be, but after about an hour, it was FINALLY taken care of. Mind you, I went while Aaron was at work because I was too anxious to wait for one of his off days so we could go together. On his next off day, we went back to the same post office to submit his passport application. It took just as long to go thought the ordeal as when I went to submit mine. When it came time to for Aaron to pay the Passport fees, the post office employee said "It will be $110". When I went, I was charged $80!!! I wrestled with speaking up about the difference in the fees, but decided to do the HONEST thing (which was really hard considering that $30 is a huge deal when you are unemployed and planning a wedding) but I thought Aaron was being overcharged. Turns out that the SAME post office employee charged me the Under 16 rate of $80 by mistake. Being the anal person that I can be, I immediately began to question him about whether this mistake would cause my application to be denied which would mean that we could not go on our honeymoon (or Aaron would have to go solo). It took ANOTHER hour for him to come up with a solution. His solution, "Call me on Thursday and I will have an answer as to what you need to do." I thought it was nuts cause I just wanted to send them the additional $30 and be done with it. When I called him on Thursday, he STILL had no solution and could tell that he had forgotten about my situation. Anyway, long story long, I am supposted to get a call from him on Monday and I bet my first paycheck that his solution will be to go ahead and send in an additional $30, which is exactly what I proposed in the first place. I will let you know how it goes...

I wanted to leave you with a random, but cute picture that I took on the day that our beautiful invitations arrived. Looks like Jackson and Griffey are excited about the wedding too!

Ahhh Paradise!

The thing that I have been most looking for throughout the wedding planning process is the HONEYMOON! It has been a while since I have done some serious traveling and I have been itching to get away for some much needed R&R.

There are a million locations that we could have picked from. We just had two stipulations: it had to be a beach and it had to be all-inclusive. After attending a Bridal Fair and sifting through all of the fliers and brochures that we were given, I came across a brochure for a local travel agency, Travel Planners.

After one phone call, I knew that I could leave it in their hands to find the perfect honeymoon for us. We settled on Rivera Maya, Mexico as our destination and after a few months of debating about whether we should go on a honeymoon (because of the added expense and not knowing if we would be able to take time off work) we FINALLY booked the honeymoon on Wednesday. Since then, my spirits have been way up! Besides the wedding, I have something wonderful to look forward to and I have yet to stop daydreaming about the white sandy beaches, clear blue water and last but not least...the swim-up bars at the resort pools!!! I forgot to mention that when I was discussing my list of "must haves" with the travel agent, swim-up bars were a definite requirement and our resort has 8!

I am ending this post with a few photos of where Aaron and I will spend our first 6 days of wedded bliss!

Maids and Men

Bridal Party

Not Pictured:
Steve Peterman
Jevonte Harris


Matthew Nesbitt - Groomsman

Nick Scott - Groomsman

Saba Dovlatabadi - Groomsman

Terrance Harville - Best Man

Brandy Patterson - Bridesmaid

Jennifer Floyd - Bridesmaid

Alissa Williams - Bridesmaid

Karia Sippial - Bridesmaid

Sara Nesbitt - Maid of Honor

Where it all began...Our Engagement Party!

Last November, our great friend and one of my bridesmaids, Brandy, hosted an amazing wine themed engagement party at the Wine Loft in Downtown Birmingham. We invited 50 of our closest family and friends and it was the first time that our families got to meet. We were especially excited because the party was over Thanksgiving weekend and some of our extended family was in town and able to attend the celebration. It was honestly one of the best nights we have EVER had in our lives. We often talk about how much fun we had and how we wish that we could recreate that night. Here are just a few of the photos from the night. Thanks so much to Brandy for such an amazing night!


Jennifer King, Brandy Patterson (the Hostess and Bridesmaid) and Amy Roberson all dear friends of the Bride!

A.T. and Alissa (Bridesmaid) our married friends from Auburn! Love you guys!

The Bride and Groom!

Seester and Maid of Honor and the Bride-to-be!

Aaron fits right in with the male members of the Bride's family!

Our cake that turned out so much better than expected

Jennifer and Alissa - both Bridesmaids and great friends!

The bride with Karia (Bridesmiad), Renee (friend) and Danielle (friend from Auburn)

Aaron with his dad

Our "guestbook" which is a fab addition to our kitchen!

Our Registry

We have had the best time registering! Way back in March, we attended one of Belk's registry events at the Summit in Birmingham. It was really fun! That is where we got our first taste of the registry gun. It was pretty challenging because it was one of the first times that we realized our tastes on certain things differed. It turned out to not only be a FUN experience, but we learned a lot about eachother during the process. What I (Kari) learned, was to stay at home and do the rest of the registering online!!! :)

Online Registry

Online Registry

Online Registry

The Venue...Carraway-Davie House & Conference Center

Here are some photos of where we will say "I DO!" The ceremony will take place poolside directly behind the Carraway-Davie House. The reception will be inside the Conference Center.

Welcome to our wedding!

We are so excited for our upcoming wedding! We wanted to share some of the details with you before the big day. Continue to check our blog for new posts as we will try to update it each week. We can't wait to see you on the big day!