14

We are exactly two weeks away from the wedding! WOOHOO!

Today is going to be a crazy busy day. First, we get our apartment today! We are moving to Irving which is about halfway between his work and mine. I'm excited to get our apartment, but also nervous. I've never lived in an apartment before. It will definitely be different. Second, Hadly's bridal shower is at noon. I'm so excited that Adam and Hadly are getting married. Third, my bachelorette party is today. It starts at 2. We are doing some sort of scavenger, then having dinner, and then going skating. It should be lots of fun. So while I'll be partying, Jay will be moving stuff over to the apartment. Not really fair, huh? Everything just ended up happening on the same weekend, but it's okay. I will be able to help finish moving stuff tomorrow. Hopefully, we won't have to move too much more after that.

Hopefully, I will be able to post in the next few days. We don't have internet in our apartment yet, so I'm not sure if I will have somewhere to get online, but I will try.

15

The Caterers

Our rehearsal dinner is 2 weeks from today. The dinner will be catered by an amazing restaurant called Chef Point Cafe. It's a gourmet restaurant inside a gas station. Seriously, it is really amazing food. We are having Chicken Parmesan and Beef Lasagna, salad, and garlic bread. They will serve it buffet style, and I cannot wait. It is such amazing food.

For our wedding reception we wanted to continue with the movie theme. We are doing concession style foods. Nachos, little pizzas, and hot dogs. We are also having a candy bar and popcorn colored in our wedding colors. We are using some people from Harvest Church to cater the reception. They have a ministry there where you pay for the cost of the food and make a $100 donation to their food bank. They have been really excited to do our wedding, so I can't wait to see what they have come up with.

I can't believe we are already down to 15 days! I'm so excited!

16

Our Wedding Shower

On May 21 we had our wedding shower. I didn't want a bridal shower because it's Jay's wedding too. He'll be using the gifts as well, so shouldn't he get to help open them? So we had a couple's shower instead.

My sister and my other 2 bridesmaids planned an awesome shower. It was at a pavilion at an area park, so the kids could play on the playground if they got bored. There was also a horseshoe area set up, which was perfect for my dad and my bro-in-law.

When everyone first arrived they were given a paper that they could fill out with things like how we met each other, their favorite memory with one or both of us, advice for us, etc. It was really nice to read what everyone wrote afterward. Some were funny and some made me cry. After that everyone was given a clothespin and they couldn't say the word wedding. If they said it, they had to give their clothespin to the person who caught them saying it. That game went on through the entire shower. We also played a trivia game. Jay and I would say a favorite line from a movie, tv show, or song, and they had to guess what it was from. Some of them were pretty easy, because most of our friends like the same movies and shows as we do. But the songs were pretty hard for everyone. It was a lot of fun though. Then Jay and I had to answer questions about each other. If we got the question wrong we had to put a piece of gum in our mouths. Then we passed out the cake and we opened our presents. We got a lot of great stuff. Lots of stuff we needed for the kitchen, kitchen and bath towels, our bed quilt, money, gift cards, 2 tents, and lots more. We were so grateful for everything, and for the fact that we have such awesome friends and family.

After the main shower was over, our closest friends and our families stayed behind for dinner. Everyone brought a dish to share and we had a great time just hanging out.

My sister, Jen and Maria did an awesome job planning the shower. I'm so thankful that I have such amazing bridesmaids!

17

Our Honeymoon

Planning our honeymoon has been a bit challenging. We are not beach people, so that leaves out a lot of places. Plus, we don't want to spend a lot of money on plane tickets or hotel rooms. I'd rather spend the money on things to see and do.

We have been looking into Tennessee. We wanted to go to Memphis for a few days and then to Nashville. We love music and both of those cities are full of amazing musicians. But the more I looked into it the more I realized that there are so many things I would want to see and do that our honeymoon would be crazy busy. We want our honeymoon to be relaxing and a time to just be with each other.

So then we decided to look a little closer to home and in quieter places. I remembered that I had bought a deal from Groupon for a lakeview cabin by Lake Whitney. We decided we could use that and it would be a nice relaxing night on the lake. Then I saw a deal on Living Social for two nights in the Magnolia Bed and Breakfast in Palestine. It's a little historical town in East Texas. So we got that deal as well. We figured between the two deals we could have a nice relaxing honeymoon close to home.

And then I went to the Bedford Blues Festival this past weekend. I really started thinking about Tennessee again. I really want to go to Memphis. I've been there once for only a few hours. The whole time I was there I kept thinking how I wanted to be there with Jay. I thought it was the perfect place for us. So Jay and I talked it over, and we've decided that we could just go to Memphis for a couple of days. Then we'll come back to Texas and use the deals we have.

I'm super excited. I know we'll love Memphis, and then we'll still have our relaxing days here in Texas. I can't wait!

18

The Cast

This post should have happened a long time ago. Tonight I am going to introduce the cast members of our wedding.

The Bride        Kari Spence

The Groom       Jay Yaws

 Matron of Honor       Tamra Stanley, my sister

Vocalist              Floyd Stanley, my Bro-in-law

 Bridesmaid        Jennifer Majors, my best friend for over 18 years

 Bridesmaid       Snooki, Not!  Maria Wassenmiller, one of my closest friends

 Best Man      Kyle Collins, Jay's best friend

(This is us at his wedding to Mary Cantrell)

 Groomsman       Tim Dieterich, one of Jay's good friends

Groomsman        Adam Gingrich, Jay's other best friend

(That's Hadly. They are getting married Nov 13. YAY!)

 Junior Bridesmaid       Raegan Stanley, my niece

Junior Groomsman       Troy Stanley, my nephew

Junior Groomsman       Tyler Stanley, my nephew

 Flower Girl      Abigale Majors, Jen's niece

 Flower Girl        Jordan Fetch, she loves Jay

Poem Readers      Lindsey Kent &

                            Aubrie Norman, Jay's sisters

Ushers     Philip Kent &

                                       Thomas Norman, Jay's bros-in-law

My cousin Kelsey is also going to be a house party girl, handing out the programs and that kind of stuff, but I don't have a recent picture of her. 

So that's our wedding party. It's full of the people that mean the most to us. We are so excited that each of them will play a part in our special day!

19

Our Wedding Theme

Yes we have a theme for our wedding. First let me explain how we decided to have a theme. I had gone to a bridal show with a friend of mine and some reps from the Old Bedford School were there. I picked up the information and kept it. I researched a lot of venues, but I just kept coming back to the Old Bedford School. We finally decided to go check it out. As soon as we drove onto the property I knew we would get married there. We walked around the property and saw all the rooms downstairs. Then we went upstairs to the auditorium. I loved the auditorium and the old feel it had to it. Then we noticed all of the rows and every chair was numbered. My parents started joking that we could give everyone a ticket with a seat number on it and make them sit there. This got us thinking. Jay and I love to go to movies and theater productions, so it made sense to us to have a themed wedding where everyone got a ticket. We thought we could come up with a title for our "movie," have a poster made up, and give out tickets. It's really is a perfect theme for us.

Lucky for us, Jay's friend Adam is super talented at artsy stuff. It was no problem for him to put a movie poster together for us.

Isn't it awesome? It lists all of the cast members, producers, music supervisor, director of photography, etc. We haven't gotten it printed yet, but I am so excited to it! We also used this as our invitation. Instead of all the names at the bottom, it had all of the wedding day info and where to RSVP. I totally loved them!

I am still working on the tickets and trying to figure out how to do them. I really hope I can get them done because that is what started the whole theme. I have less than 3 weeks to do it...

20

Our Wedding Photography

Back in November 2010, Jay's friend Adam took some engagement photos for us. Adam is an awesome photographer, and I would have loved to have him shoot our wedding, But he is one of the groomsmen. His sister Bethany is also a photographer. We met with her back in March to discuss possibly doing our wedding. We did an engagement shoot with her as well. Here are some of my favorite shots that she took.

  This one is my absolute fav. It just looks so natural, and we look so happy together!

    I love the trees around us. So pretty!

  That's where we will be getting  married in 20 days!

I love the shots that Bethany took. She does a lot of artistic shots and really cool angles. I'm so excited that she will be taking our wedding pics!

Check more of her pictures at www.rocktheboat-photography.com.

21!

Well this sucks. My computer is infected. I can't get any of my pictures or anything. So I can't write about what I planned to write about tonight. Oh well.

So instead I'll write about what I did tonight. This weekend is the Bedford Blues and BBQ Festival. Tonight the headliner was Jonny Lang. He is so amazing to see live. I love listening to his cds, but it is totally different in concert. He is an amazing guitar player. I went with Jen who is one of my bridesmaids, and another Jen who is a good friend of ours. I didn't try any of the BBQ, but man it smelled so good! Maybe tomorrow I'll get to try it. Jay and I are to the festival tomorrow. The headliner is Buddy Guy which should also be awesome.

Going to the festival kind of bums me out though. We were supposed to go to Memphis and Nashville for our honeymoon, but we had to change our plans. Memphis is like a crazy blues town. I would love to go spend a few nights on Beale Street and hear all the awesome blues musicians. Tonight just reminded me of how awesome that music is. Oh well. Someday we will go to Memphis and Nashville and have a blast.

22!

To Veil or Not to Veil...that is the question...

Back when I was going to wear the fancier dress I bought a veil to wear. It is a shoulder length, one layer veil, so it is pretty simple. Now that I am wearing a different dress, I can't decide if I should wear the veil or not. I always pictured myself wearing a veil in my wedding and I want to wear it, but I'm not sure if it will look right with my dress. I think the style of my dress might be too casual for a veil.

It's such a difficult decision...and only 22 days left to make it...

23

We're 23 days away...so excited!!!

Let's talk about the dress. Back in September of 2010, I visited David's Bridal for the first time. I tried on lots of different dresses. Short ones, long ones, strapless ones, even halter ones even thought I had no intention of going in that direction. But my mother pulled one of the shelf and really wanted me to try it. So I did, and I ended up liking it the best. It was Ivory with Champagne colored beading and sash. I really loved the two colors together.I didn't want to take it off! So since all 3 of my bridesmaids and my junior bridesmaid were there, we decided to see what type of dress they should look for to go with mine.

 Here is me in the halter dress that I really liked, my sister (the matron of honor) in the bridesmaid dress we liked, and my niece (the junior bridesmaid) in the dress we liked for her.

 Of course, one of the flower girls was there as well. When she saw all of us trying on pretty dresses, she got upset because she wanted a pretty dress too! So we tried some on her. We really liked this style, but in the green color like the bridesmaid dress above.

This picture is just a funny picture. That's the flower girl under my dress. It was a great hiding spot for her!

Obviously, I didn't end up buying this dress or these pictures would not be posted here. In November of 2010, I went to Tunica, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee with my parents and aunt and uncle. We stopped in Arkansas on the way back home to look at flowers because my aunt is doing all of mine. There was a bridal shop near the flower shop, so we decided to stop by. I tried on 2 dresses. One was a halter style dress that was VERY beaded. The whole bodice was covered in beads. It was so heavy! Very pretty dress, but not for me. The other dress I tried on was strapless. It was ivory with champagne in the center. It had some beading around the top, down the middle, and around the train. I loved it! It was a little big, but it was only $250!

                                                                       Isn't it pretty?

                                                                     This is the back.

We bought this dress and it is hanging in my closet. But again, I wouldn't be posting these pictures if I was wearing this dress.

Fast forward to June 2011. I am out with my bridesmaid looking for their dress, and we're deciding how fancy to go with the dress. I had been having reservations about the direction we were going with the wedding for a while. When Jay and I first started talking about the type of wedding we wanted, we knew we wanted a more casual wedding where people could really just let loose and celebrate. Obviously the dress I bought is not very casual, so I decided to go back to our original plan. Yes, with 4 months until the wedding day, I decided to get a new dress.

Luckily, we were able to find a dress within 2 weeks. It is more casual, but still looks like a wedding dress. With this dress, I feel like we are having the wedding that we really wanted. I can't wait to wear it down the aisle in 23 days!