August Showers bring September Changes

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind.  I know I say this a lot lately and it makes me feel blessed for nights like the one I have.  I don't have to work, I don't have training, my girlfriends are all busy and Danny is at school.  Although I was ready to be social, it is actually really great to have a night to myself, watch bridal shows and clean my house.  I made a healthy meal, had a glass of yummy wine and feel really relaxed for the first time in a long time.

So much has happened in the past month.  In late August, I went home to Dayton for some ultimate wedding planning followed by a trip to Alabama the following weekend.  It was the official meeting of the families, which was a teeny bit stressful in the first place and our first bridal shower and official engagement party of the south.  More about that weekend in a moment but Danny also started school, started as Senior Deacon of the Freemasons, and has been working a lot.  I got a part time job at Paper Source, was elected to the Board of Governors for The Ohio State University Alumni Association of Washington DC and was promoted to event manager at CEB.  Needless to say, I had to give my two weeks at Paper Source after a short two weeks there but they were understanding and I bought out the store with my discount!!

Back to the weekend of the South!  We headed to Alabama and started our trip delayed but had a blast at the DCA airport bar.  Friday was spent getting ready for the shower, which was hosted by Jane and Karen, two lovely friends of my future mother in law, Judy.  Danny and I prepared for my parents' arrival and the first meal with the combined families!  My parents loved the food in Daphne, loved the southern hospitality and the families loved each other- who could ask for more!

The boys went to shoot guns in the morning while we ladies attended the brunch.  It was amazing even though I only really knew 5 people there!  The theme was lemons and limes (which match my color scheme) and Jane has an amazing touch with decor.  Karen made this amazing spiked frozen slushy punch and everyone I met that day was so generous and kind.  Although the Reeves don't have the massive size that my family does, they have an incredible and large group of friends that act in as aunts and uncles to Danny and Michael.  I re-met and met a lot of wonderful people at the shower and engagement party and feel really lucky to marry into this community.  Following the fab shower was a quick trip to the urgent care to take care of a bad reaction to allergies for my fiance and then to the co-ed engagement party.  Rich, my father-in-law to be made incredible fried fish and grilled shrimp and everyone had a blast.  Judy and Rich did a great job and I am so lucky to have my parents come down for that weekend.

Meyer Lemon Punch Bowl

Lemon themed gift bags!

My lovely family

Danny and two of the groomsmen

A very generous gift from Judy and Rich

Lovely Leslie and Lillian

Mimi gave me my getting ready outfit for the day of!

My lovely hostesses, Jane and Karen

My friend Nicole came all the way from NOLA!!!  Love you, girl!

Ladies of the shower

My new family!

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All together now!

Oh yeah, that is 2 huge bags of pecans...yum!

Groomsman Gary and lovely Larissa hung out all day!

  I don't know if it is all this talk of Alabama, my glass of wine or the four episodes of Say Yes To The Dress- Atlanta, but I'm feeling a little southern twang come on! Lovely last few weeks and looking forward to the crazy few months to come!

Xoxo Y'all!
Jacqueline 

Finally feel like a bride!

We have had a pretty long engagement, but then again, we dated for over five years before getting to that point... Even so, I haven't really felt like a bride yet- it hasn't really felt "real" quite yet. I have all, I mean all of the magazines, books, Pinterest boards, wedding notebooks, binders, etc and just this past weekend it started to sink in.

I went back to Ohio to cram in three months of wedding planning, a few visits to my sick grandparents and nine holes of golf into two days- not an easy task. Optimistically, I headed to the airport- timeline made down to the hour increments, google map directions printed, contact numbers listed- all organized in the order in which I would need them. I get to the airport and I am delayed...it's okay- I am delayed all the time- then I was delayed again- four times until I finally left three hours late- making me unavailable to check off the first thing on my list- visit Mimi in the hospital. Type B Jacqueline (she is in there- deep down) told myself to calm down, we could see Mimi and Poppy tomorrow. (she just had a hip replacement and he ran over himself with his own truck for the second time...a whole other story in itself).

I had dinner with my parents at an old Dayton haunt- old hickory BBQ and I was ready to start fresh in the morning.We woke up and I went for a quicky jog- starting my day right!  We then headed over to see Mimi at Kettering Hospital where she looked great and was staying in a nicer room than my apartment!  Then we continued on- starting with my hair trial at Square One (looks amazing btw) and headed to The Flower Factory to get some ribbon for the aisles and frame holders, on our way back to Oakwood we got my mom's mother of the bride dress- she looks seriously incredible- super beautiful!  We  ran back to get lunch for my dad and ran into a floral design shop to get some inspiration.  That was all between 7 AM and 1 PM.  Starting to feel tired, but good!

We headed back to our house and I called to confirm our appointment with the alteration lady and she had to cancel- not happy since the real purpose of this trip was to get that done.  It's okay- we are heading down to Cincinnati anyway and will have a great night.  I instead crammed in a stop at The Little Exchange to register, a quaint place in Oakwood where all the proceeds go to charity.

I planned on taking my parents down to Cincy to see Jim Gaffigan- a favorite comedian of mine and dinner at Nada- on our way out, I realized I lost the tickets!  After looking for fifteen minutes, already running late, we had to just go.  Traffic hindered us and we were 30 minutes late to dinner.  I quickly ordered, ran to the theater, reprinted my tickets and headed back to dinner with parents.  Just in time for my meal to come and to suck down two margaritas- YUM!  We headed over to see Jim Gaffigan- so fun and he is so funny- we had a great time. A really exhausting but great day.

At Jiim Gaffigan

 
No rest for the wicked, as Danny would say.  I woke up again to see Mimi and then caught a quick jog.  We grabbed some coffee and headed over to Prime Time to see some table settings.  After taking a few samples and observing, we were a little behind schedule.  My mom and I ran down to Oregon district to grab some lunch and my patience was running out and I was getting seriously low on energy.  We popped over to the florist to see Elizabeth, who we LOVE LOVE LOVE and she made us feel really good about our vision.  We stopped by the Crowne Plaza to check out the guest rooms and finally met Lisa at the Schuster Center to see a set up there and discuss our upcoming trip and tastings in November.

Options for linens

Bringing the garden inside

Floral options

Setting up another wedding at the Schuster

Can't wait to walk down those stairs

That night I was able to see my bestie, Maria, for a few hours- lots of champagne and catching up on the porch was a great way to end my busy day.

Sunday morning, I drove out to pick up my cousin and bridesmaid, Bridget and headed to Michael's.  Of course, i forgot the coupons and we had to run back to my parents house first- but it all worked out.  We got 300 dollars worth of merchandise for 175 dollars and thanks to an amazing gift card that my girlfriend, Elizabeth, gave me- it was freaking free!  Success!!  I dropped her back off to her hilarious hubby and his cousin- doing tequila shots and yard work to get over their hangover from the night before and drove back to throw on golf gear to catch 9 holes.

After having a good last few holes at CCN, we headed over for one last visit to see Mimi and Poppy (and my Aunt Tracy) and finally headed home.  My flight was again delayed, but I didn't mind- gave me a few more minutes to relax and eat dinner and head to the airport.

My dad

My dad coaching my mom

I'm there too!

Mom, Dad, and our caddy- Chris.

So THAT weekend made things sink in- yes, you planning a wedding.  It sank even more in when I came home, exhausted, and my handsome, amazing fiance told me I looked beautiful (even thought I had some serious bags under my eyes) told me he was proud of me and let me go to sleep.  I can't wait to have the wedding, but even more I can't wait to marry Danny.

Love you, boo boo!

xoxo
Jza Jza

An Intellectual Wedding

Once in a while I get the opportunity to be the onsite contact for the Waterview Conference Center.  A few weekends ago I also played the role of day-of coordinator.  I absolutely do not mind and it is always great practice for the three day of coordinations I have coming up in the next year.

This bride was very low key and very organized.  A previous event planner in my department, Meg was amazing to work with. She is now a teacher and the groom is a scientist, so their theme was kind of intellectual. I love how a simple centerpiece can look so elegant and professional!

Card table



Gift table and guest book



The centerpieces lined up and ready to go

Ninja photo of the ceremony

Simple yet elegant

Gluten-free cupcakes for the many dietary restrictions there!

Love the scale

They were so sweet and the dad gave me a hug at the end of the night.  She also sent us an edible arrangement to show her gratitude- deeeelicious! :)

Up next: Updates on our upcoming nuptials!

Xoxo,
Jza Jza

Raleigh, north cakalakie

Danny and I headed down to Raleigh to see our friends, Bama and Travis. They are getting married in december- so we checked out their venues and I put in my two cents to how they can set up. That have a very rustic feeling location for both their ceremony and reception, which will be amazing! I look forward to seeing the final product!

In between wedding planning- we beat the heat hanging out at their friend's pool and eating local treats! We had a hot dog from the famous Roast Grill- which was so yummy! We tried beers at at Tasty's and had dinner at a famous chicken and waffle place. Double yum!

It was pretty dang hot all weekend- so my energy level was really low as the day wore on!

We had a great time at their new house and got to catch up on all of their wedding plans!

Thanks for everything!

Hope you all beat the heat in your parts!

Xoxo,
Jza Jza

I'm back!

Okay so after our Europe trip we wanted to lay low for a bit- relax and get ready for the summer craziness. That relaxation never really came so apologies for the lack of posts. Double apologies for this phone post- I lost my camera cord. But will post real pictures soon.

We were invited to 4 weddings over 4 weeks, so that has kept us busy! Congrats Jenna and Nishant, Steve and Laura and John and Kristin! I unfortunately missed the first two, but heard they were spectacular!

This past weekend we went to a wedding for John and Kristin. I promise a more detailed post in a few days but wanted to post a few iPhone pics now!

They looked amazing and it was a blast!

Oh and if you think my escuse for not posting is lame- I was stung by a bee on my eyelid- proof below!!

Can't wait to her how your summers are going!

Xoxo
Jza Jza

An incredible wedding

We have spent our time in Santorini relaxing the days away- the weather was perfect yesterday! We hung out by our private pool for most of the day before heading to the wedding.

The wedding took place on the side of a cliff by our villas and was so beautiful. Denise wore a Reem Acra gown that was stunning! A Greek duo of a violin and some sort of guitar greeted us as we walked in and the short ceremony was spoken in Greek and English.

After dinner we headed up to the reception area- held in one of the villas and we sent paper lanterns into the sky...followed by a firework show that was a surprise from the bride's parents! Incredible.

We ate- I danced all night and we even did shots of ouzo- not good. All in all it was an amazing evening and we are so happy for the bride and groom!

Congrats Denise and bobby! Thank you for an amazing weekend!

Xoxo,
Jza Jza

1 year to go!

Danny and I are officially starting the T-1 year countdown to our wedding! We did so with a few close friends this weekend with a small party at our place.  Lucky us, our friend Ben was in town from Denver!  He was pretty much the reason Danny and I are together and the photographer of our first kiss...ahem...make out session.  If it weren't for Ben for introducing me to the hash and/or PBR and tequila shots, Danny and I may not be starting our lives together! :)



5 1/2 years later!

Thanks, Ben!

Since I recently scheduled my flowers for our wedding, I really wanted to play with some of the more interesting ones.  I went to Little Shop of Flowers, which was pretty expensive but well worth it for these beauties!

I bought the mason jar vases at Paper Source- matching our yellow and green theme and tying in Danny's southern roots.  These were a perfect precursor for our wedding!

Everyone had a great time...maybe too good of a time- we killed a bottle of Jack Daniels (for Jacqueline and Daniel) in a few short hours...

Small snack display with our new chafing dish! (yay wedding registry!) :)

Brought home a little touch of Dayton with Ohio's own Cheryl and Co Cookies!

Our bar...well utilized!

Selma, Tayo and Danny

Shannon, Bridesmaid Leah and Ben

Santi and new friend, Gary

Love birds Rachel and Chris!

Tayo is such a ham :)

Great night with great friends!!!

Looking forward to the next few weeks- be back after Memorial Day with updates!!!

Happy spring to all of  my followers- love you all!

XoXo,

Jza Jza