Earrings Update

They have the aquamarine earrings I got on the Anthro website now, here they are!

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They look big, but that's their actual size.

Anyway, now you don't have to use your imagination!

Engaging Pics Round II

Ok, here's a couple more pictures I am thrilled about....

(Once again, click on the picture to see the true quality, blogger makes them look fuzzy and they really aren't!)

We really didn't take a ton of kissing ones.




I love, love love this picture!


This one was Ryan's idea, I think it's fun:


For this one, we climbed into a tree and I did my best not to flash our photog friend. Climbing onto a branch in a dress is hard!



We also took some on the Southeast Missouri State University Track (both Ryan and I went to school here).



It was weird to actually be sitting next to him in the bleachers at the track...he's usually running around doing coaching stuff.


We took some incredible pictures and I couldn't be happier with the results. I am really pleased with the locations we picked...they were on the random side! The rock garden with the fountain behind us is actually right across the street from the water treatment plant...um random, but unique and pretty. The track was Ryan's idea, and those were really fun and had meaning to us. The Victorian mansion in my hometown is open to the public for tours, and we went in the morning so we'd have the grounds to ourselves. We also went to 2 parks overlooking the Mississippi River, and the cool doorway is another historic building downtown.

I am also glad that we got to take the pictures in my hometown, since the wedding festivities are in St. Louis. We got incredibly lucky with the weather...the leaves were at their peak and the sky was so blue.

My friend Austin was so generous and donated his Saturday morning to take these for us--thanks second cousin!

Anyway, these semi-DIY or, more accurately, DIT (do-it-together) pictures are the nicest ones I have of Ryan and I am, and I couldn't be happier with them. We'll be using them in the photo guest book for the wedding and possibly for e-mail save the dates. I am so amazed that we came out with pictures that are so representative of us as a couple! Who says you have to pay a pro, right?

Did you do engagement pictures?

Engaging Pics Round I

Ryan and I took our engagement a few weekends ago, and I so excited to show you guys!

A few things first: I believe that if you click on the picture, you can see a much higher quality version. Also, we lucked out weather-wise big time! These pictures were all taken in my home town by my second cousin and co-worker Austin using my dad's dSLR. I don't know why Blogger makes them look so fuzzy, because they aren't! Also, Austin did some light color-correcting, etc. in Photoshop.

Anyway, here we go!

We took a couple jumping ones (they were Ryan's idea) and they turned out to be some of our favorites.

You can see the Mississippi River behind us through the trees.




We are goofballs!

No really, we are!



Here's our attempt at serious:



So there's just a few of my favorites... If you aren't sick and tired of looking at my face (hey, I wouldn't blame you), check back tomorrow for Round II!

Shiny Things

Last weekend I was up in St. Louis visiting Ryan, and I met my friend Melissa to hang out for a bit when Ryan headed off to work Sunday afternoon. Melissa and I met at a mall and shopped for a bit. I tortured myself by heading into Anthropolgie...I say torture because lots of my spending money is being directed towards the wedding right now, and it's Christmas shopping season so anything extra goes towards Christmas presents. So I didn't have much to spend, that's why it was so tough!

Anyway, I found these stunning earrings in aquamarine! For whatever reason the aquamarine ones aren't on the website and my camera is dismal at micro.

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They're going to be my "something blue!"

They were $28, which I think is crazy-town-expensive for post earrings, but my sister called and yelled at me and told me to buy them because mom doesn't have anything for me for Christmas. So I bought them, mom paid me back, and now I just need to wrap them! They're a bit sparkly in terms of my typical jewelry choices, but I am wearing my hair down so I don't think they'll be too much.

I definitely wasn't even looking for these, they just fell into my lap.

Did you have any wedding decisions that made themselves simple?

Long and Loose

Long, hopefully, thanks to the pre-natal vitamins I've been taking every morning!

My hair, that is.

I've decided to wear my hair down.

Ok quick aside...I kind of feel frivolous and silly for investing as much time and energy into my wedding hairstyle as I have. Wedding brain is taking over!

Moving on, I'm taking prenatal vitamins to make my hair grow. Hopefully it will thicken up too, because I have really thin, flat hair.

I'd like my hair to look something like this:

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Haha, totally kidding, this movie was on last night and I thought it'd be funny to bring this "inspiration pic" to my hair trial and enjoy the look on the stylist's face when I tell her this is what I want. Seriously, I'm thinking something along these lines:

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Or this:

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But this is my favorite. Maybe it's because my hair is so flat, but I am a sucker for volume!

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There's no way my hair will get that long, but I'd like another 4-6 inches by July. So I will keep chugging pre-natals (they are awesome for your skin, by the way, but haven't seen any difference in my hair yet and I've been taking them for 2-3 weeks) and getting trims, and hopefully I'll have a decent amount of length. I do know I want to volume on the top, loose curls, and my normal side part.

I am also considering a pretty piece for my hair, like this maybe:

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Also love this:

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I would probably attempt to make my own hair ornament, due to cost. These pretty little things have big price tags!

How you dressing your tresses for your wedding?

3 Years

3 years ago today I first laid on eyes on my man.

3 years ago, at the state cross country meet in Jefferson City, Missouri, I saw this super hot guy with a clipboard with my little sister's cross country coach. I asked my mom who he was, and she said, "Oh, that's Coach Lane. He coached Alli [my other sister], too."

I had gone to dozens of Mary and Alli's meets throughout the 2 years Ryan helped coach and never once laid eyes on this kid. Weird, no? To add to the oddness, I had just quit smoking 2 weeks ago before meeting him.

Now the joke is that I never met him because I was always smoking behind the buses!

Anyway, I was checking him out all day....I'm shameless. Things weren't going so hot with my best friend (we were growing apart in really big ways), and I hadn't dated in quite a while. I tried to lock eyes with him, but he totally ignored me (he's very focused at meets....but I had no way of knowing that then).

My family and Ryan at last year's meet...it was freaking freezing!

I ended up adding him to Facebook, thinking, "what do I have to lose?" He friended me and we began an epic 3-week long message-back-and-forth deal and I finally asked him out for coffee. We ended up having lunch at a Mexican restaurant in town and talked for so long that our guacamole oxidized. A few months later we were a couple, and 3 years later, here we are.

Isn't it strange how things work out? I look back on that day and I think about how unaware I was at how much things would change and how much Ryan would change things for the better for me.

I think it's fitting that we met at a cross country meet...what can I say, we're running nerds in a big way!

So fill me in, how did you and your significant other meet?

Tropical Aqua

Remember when I tried on those J Crew wedding dresses a few months ago, and I found the tropical aqua color J Crew has for some of their special occasion dresses? The wedding consultant at the store didn't know if J Crew would come back out in the spring and she told me to keep checking.

So, last week I was checking out the Bridal section of J Crew stalking my bridesmaid's dresses, and they have a spring preview up. I was flipping through it, hoping to see the tropical aqua color that would be ideal bridesmaid's dresses, and didn't see it. I randomly e-mailed their wedding consultant and asked her if tropical aqua would be making a reappearance.....and this was her reply:

Stacy,

We will have the tropical aqua available in our Silk Taffeta dresses in the Spring Collection. This collection will be available around January. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best Wishes,

Lauren Harris

J.CREW

Sweet success! Sweet sweet success!

I like the bridesmaid's dresses so much, that I bought one for myself! It was on J Crew's final sale a couple months ago. I wore it to a wedding in September:


And here it is full length with red shoes (they're brand new BCBG peep-toe pumps, I got them at Plato's Closet for $10!):


Basically, I'm in love with this dress. The aqua is pretty much perfect, and the taffeta is such good quality and has a pretty sheen to it. Hopefully the bridesmaid's will love them as much as I do!

I am so relieved that J Crew is coming back out with this color. As soon as the dresses come out in January, I'm going to get all of the bridesmaid's together up in St. Louis and have them pick a couple dresses they'd like to try. It'll work the same way the wedding dress try-on session worked: they'll pick out the dresses they want to try on and let me know what size, and J Crew will bring those dresses in for them to choose from. J Crew's customer service is out of this world!

I'll have the girls pick out whatever dress they'd like in Tropical Aqua. Hopefully there will be a decent selection in the taffeta.

Where are you getting your bridesmaid's dresses from?