Invitations? CHECK!!!!

We found them!!!  The most perfect invitations in the world after MONTHS of looking.  Nothing we had found was just perfect until yesterday.  Robyn Love handwrites the invitation just as you would like it. Every swoop and letter, just perfect. Then it is scanned into the computer and printed onto linen cardstock. Each is then hand stamped with the design and shaded to give it the vintage flair. Then each is backed with super heavy black cardstock and slipped into a matching envelope that has a calligraphy return address.  They are so beautiful and look, to Glenn and I, like invitations someone might have discovered in Great-Grandmother's attic somewhere.  The fact that they are lettered and stamped by hand really suits me and my love for everything creative.  I cannot believe we finally found them.  I thought for sure I never would and we'd have to settle for an invitation that we just "liked."  It is all coming together and just in time.  I am so excited!
If you like these invitations, check out Robyn's Etsy Shop.  She has so much to offer and it is all so very beautiful.

Designs By Robyn Love

On your mark...get set...go!

It's almost here...AUGUST, the month when everything forges full-speed ahead.  We have to make our selections and get all the deposits paid and then it begins, all the little detail planning that will transform A wedding into OUR fairytale.  I am excited to begin...to get started on this leg of the journey.  I am trying to look at it all as this one big ball of incredible and enjoy each moment we have from now til that magical day we say I do.  Each little aspect of it will have its own story, its own part to play.  This is the next note to a very amazing composition.  We are creating it.  We are making it.  We are a part of magic in the making and this little precious composition will tell our story.

Photography Woes

I love, love, love working with Christa of Christa McClellan Photography.  Her pictures are amazing and so not cookie cutter style and besides that she is just an all-around amazing person.  She is this bubbly friendly, little thing who sets you at ease immediately and her pictures, WOW!  She certainly has an eye and a vision!  We have so enjoyed working with her and look forward to the shoots to come and those we will certainly book her for in the future.  I am very excited to work with her in all of our already scheduled pre-wedding shoots.  Thing is, Christa is a natural light photographer which isn't conducive to a night wedding.  The more GHC and I talk, the more certain I become that a large part of this will be happening when it is dark.  She cannot take her amazing shots in the dark.  I need a wedding photographer in Abilene but there are sooooo many to choose from.  Has anyone out there had any experience they'd be willing to share about the photographers in our area.  Maybe if I could get some info from friends it would be easier to choose one.  So, please gush over, recommend, or warn me of your favorite and not so favorite photographers in this town of ours.  If you are a photographer, feel free to toot your own horn, especially if your work is not the run of the mill classic style. I am looking for a photographer with spunk and with a vision, someone who is approachable and friendly, and someone who is able to completely capture the emotion and the love on the biggest day of our lives.  Can you tell our story?  If this is you or an awesome photographer you know, I wanna hear from you.
I'd so appreciate the help!!!!

I Could Not Ask For More

Lying here with you
Listening to the rain
Smiling just to see the smile upon your face
These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive
These are the moments I'll remember all my life
I found all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more
Looking in your eyes
Seeing all I need
Everything you are is everything to me
These are the moments
I know heaven must exist
These are the moments I know all I need is this
I have all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more

[Chorus]
I could not ask for more than this time together
I could not ask for more than this time with you
Every prayer has been answered
Every dream I have's come true
And right here in this moment is right where I'm meant to be
Here with you here with me

These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive
These are the moments I'll remember all my life
I've got all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more

[Chorus]

I could not ask for more than the love you give me
'Coz it's all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more
I could not ask for more.
♥Nan

Tattooed

I will follow you to death and beyond...

(Glenn and I will both be getting this tattooed in the coming months because no truer words than these were spoken.  It so fits us and this love.  It is written in Tengwar Script, as some of you might know, Tengwar is the script that Tolkien invented for the Hobbit and the remaining series of books.) 

J.R.R. Tolkien created many languages throughout his life. He wrote in one of his letters that the tales of Middle-earth (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, etc) grew from these languages, rather than the languages being created for use in the stories.

Tolkien also created a number of different alphabets to write his languages - Tengwar, or Feanorian letters, is the one which appears most frequently in his work. The way the vowels are indicated in Tengwar resembles Tibetan and other Brahmi-derived scripts.

HELP!!!!!

Originally, Glenn and I wanted an outdoor wedding...we still do.  So many of our moments happened in August that we chose August 31, the day we reconnected after 25 years apart, to be our big day.  It so happens that in 2012, August 31 is the "blue moon" and since we truly believe that fairytale stories like this only happen once in a blue moon it couldn't have been more perfect.  We had already decided we wanted a night-time wedding.  There is nothing more romantic than pledging your eternal love and devotion beneath the stars with candlelight softly lighting the moment. So we have looked at two venues.  The first was the 181 in downtown Abilene, (the former Jordan Taylor building).  It is beautiful and has such old-fashioned charm right down to the tin ceilings.  Because I am a lover of old houses and architecture, I could not help but be drawn in by this place.  It has such a cozy atmosphere, I think any wedding and reception here would be lovely.  The only downside is that it is an indoor venue.  We weren't aiming for an indoor anything as being outside was the whole point but we both loved this place so much it actually became a possibility in our minds.  The second place we viewed was Lytle Cove Cottage.  This is a new Victorian home but they have taken great pains to give it a true Victorian feel.  It is amazing...right down to the hand cut fence, to the rose garden.  It is truly spectacular.  We love it!  I am torn.  Because they are totally different, it is a difficult choice to make.  Lytle Cove Cottage can include a weekend rental, you rent the ENTIRE house.  We'd like this because we can have our Rehearsal and Rehearsal dinner there and spend the night there on the night of the wedding.  We will proceed from our venue to our honeymoon destination the following day.  Other possibilities are certainly OLD churches in Abilene followed by a party at Mom's place for family and close friends.  I'd prefer a historic setting to any other venue.  There are old buildings that are certainly possibilities as well.  We also have the option of having the whole thing at Mom's.  In all I am stuck.  Cannot make up my mind.  HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saint Paul United Methodist Church

Church of Christ

First Christian Church

First Baptist Church

Lytle Cove Cottage

181 Event Center

181 Event Center

 

First Central Presbyterian Church

August 31, 2012

I have been thinking lately how it seems so very long until the day I finally say "I do" to the love of my life and a world of dreams comes true.  I was "encouraging" him to agree to a sooner rather than later date, but he is determined that August 31, 2012 is the day we will wed.  He says it is a miracle, a gift that few people find that we are here together now and we should honor it as such.  It should be the most perfect day of our lives.  I can't disagree.  What could be better than marrying this man on the same date we found each other again after all those years of wandering lonely?  And...it is a BLUE MOON!!!  That in and of itself will make it extra spectacular!  We met so many years ago and now here we are a little over 400 days til we get married.  That is the biggest and most precious gift of all.  I'd marry that man any day, anywhere.  Then I realized how fast this past year with him in my life has flown by...so fast, faster than I even imagined possible.  Days for me used to really drag by, I didn't look forward to new mornings.  I didn't look forward to anything.  The unhappier I was the slower the time passed.  Now I am unbelievably happy and I cannot see how it is possible that it has been almost a year already.  So it occurred to me finally, that although it seems like a lifetime away...August 31, 2012, will be here before I know it and I won't regret having waited for a day that is so special for us both in so many ways.  Some things are worth waiting for, believe me, I know.  I waited a very long time for one very special man and he is absolutely worth the wait.  Our wedding will be too!  I am sooooo excited!  Once in a blue moon...rare and beautiful.  Yes, that will be our wedding day...August 31, 2012!!!