Countdown

It has been wedding central around here lately. It's busy and I have 101 things on my mind, but mostly I am really excited to finally be counting down the days until the wedding I've been thinking about for the last 3 months. Granted, a lot of people start planning their wedding a year or more in advance, but ours was kind of last-minute. We were either going to elope to Hawaii with our little girl or have a small wedding in Nashville with family and a few friends. We chose the latter and ever since I started planning in earnest I have known it was the right decision. Mainly this is because I am really enjoying it this time around (this is my 2nd and last time to ever get married). We are doing most everything ourselves and what we are not doing, friends or neighbors are, so it is really all about us and our little community that we live in. No "wedding industrial complex," no huge venues, bland food choices, bridesmaids and groomsmen, just us saying "I do" in front of our closest and a big, fun party afterwards!

Our house looks like a craft bomb went off in it, and I'm too busy to write much, but here are a few photos of what I've been up to...

I bought this hurricane with candle in it for 99 cents at the thrift store. Perfect.

I am making goodie bags for the few out of town friends to leave at their hotel rooms. Instead of buying the bags, I used ones I had from local Nashville shops and put our sticker on it. They'll have locally made treats inside like Olive and Sinclair chocolate, these little locally made chess pies I found, some nuts and mineral water, along with a thank you note for coming and the program for the weekend.

I made this box to put our rings in. It's a real bird's nest and a old 'love' charm that I found on the ground. We bought our rings at a local family-owned jewelry store that has been here 80 years. Mine is an antique eternity band from an estate sale, very thin and dainty and his is a simple tungsten band made for durability.

I made this for my hair for the party, after I take my mom's veil off. I've had the flower since high school and I sewed a leftover piece of lace from the dress onto the back and added a ribbon then sewed the whole thing to a hair clip.

And this will be Olive's "outfit"--a heart collar (again from the thrift store) with a new, festive bow. She's going to be running around at the wedding for sure.

And June had to try on her dress and try crawling around, which wasn't easy. I had visions of dirt and grass stains all over the linen, and it turns out, the top of the dress is a little too big. ! New rule: never buy expensive children's clothes too early because you never know what their size is going to be in a month.

Luckily, a good friend, Connie from Memphis was channeling my mom when she called me last week to tell me she had found the perfect dress for June to wear at the wedding. She sent it in a box that arrived at my door yesterday and when I tried it on June she looked like a doll. So I think this is the one. I am a little sad about the other dress because I love it, but it is perhaps not age appropriate as this one is. And, let's face it, she would look cute if she showed up in a diaper so it really is all just icing on the cute cake.

And these are the shoes I finally settled on. I think they are ready to party.